


Talk Me Down

by anomalation



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Child Abuse, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Multi, Protective Siblings, The Upside Down, but like... not for a while, so many incredible platonic relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-07 21:58:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 55,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12850350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anomalation/pseuds/anomalation
Summary: Nancy knows what she wants: Steve and Jonathan both, and maybe a fight. Steve knows he'd do anything for these dorky kids. Jonathan doesn't seem to want anything, but he'd also never ask them. And none of them are interested in forgiving Billy.Featuring: some D&D, a Christmas party, a lot of relationship negotiating, no excuses for shitty behavior, and yet also the firm belief that nobody deserves abusive parents.





	Talk Me Down

Nancy Wheeler will not be played. She feels very justified when she storms up to Steve’s locker, leading Jonathan, and demands, “Why is Mike telling my parents he’s going to your house today?” 

“Because he is,” Steve frowns. “What, do you think it’s code?” 

“I thought it was a lie,” Nancy admits primly. “For doing something weird.” 

Steve gives her a look. “Last time they did something weird, I led the way with a baseball bat,” he says in an undertone. “So.” 

“I thought that stuff was over.” 

“No it is, but. I was just making a point.” He looks kind of tired, and he leans against his locker. “They’re coming over. Okay?” 

“Okay.” She hesitates, frowns back. “Wait, they?” 

“Yeah, all of their little group. It’s game night.” Steve says that like it’s a very simple conclusion to draw, but Nancy’s feeling kind of embarrassed she didn’t know that. 

“It’s Friday,” she says in bewilderment. 

“Yeah. It is. I knew you were smart, Wheeler.” The sarcasm isn’t pointed, it’s just tired. “Is that all you wanted?” he asks. 

Nancy falls back a step. “Uh. Yes.” 

“Cool. I gotta get to class,” Steve says, gives Jonathan a nod of acknowledgement, and walks away. 

Jonathan said nothing this whole time. “I told you Will wasn’t lying,” he says when they’re alone. 

“Your mom’s letting him go?”

“Yeah.”

That means his mom has to trust Steve, to some extent. Joyce Byers does not let her son go anywhere she isn’t sure of his safety. Nancy’s frown intensifies. “Are you taking Will over?” 

“No, Mom is. Why, what are you planning?” 

“Nothing,” Nancy says innocently. 

And after school, she volunteers to take Mike over to Steve’s house and then conspires to go inside. “I’m just checking,” she tells Mike. “It’s weird, you hanging out at Steve’s house.” 

“Whatever,” Mike sighs, as he’s so prone to doing these days.

Mike walks inside without knocking and Nancy follows more slowly. She’s been here before. She remembers how badly she wanted things to change, the first time she walked in here. She didn’t know what she had. 

There’s no alcohol out tonight, no beer or liquor or anything. Just some soda, water, and all kinds of snacks. And the point of this party isn’t a pool, it’s the six kids sitting in a circle with dice and paper in their hands. 

Sitting around the coffee table in the family room to her right are all the kids and Steve. Steve's kneeling between Dustin and Will, fiddling with some dice and listening to Max, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas all talking over each other. They're all talking to him, Nancy realizes.

Mike talks over everybody to say, "Look, we'll explain the rules as we go. Let's just start." 

"Alright," Steve says. "Who rolls?" 

"Nobody," all of the kids chorus. 

“Nobody yet,” Dustin corrects.

Steve smiles to himself, and shakes his head. "Just kidding with you." 

Around this point is where the kids see Nancy standing there. "What do you want?" Mike says, with all the teen angst in the world, and everyone turns to look at her. 

Steve doesn't look excited to see her. He sighs, and gets to his feet. "Load up on snacks for a second," he says to the group of kids, and comes over to her."Something I can help you with?" he asks, seeming annoyed. 

"Yeah, what's your angle, Harrington?" 

"My angle," he repeats. 

"You're hanging around with my brother now?" 

Steve is exasperated, which makes Nancy angrier. He should be worried by her suspicion and fury. He cares about what she thinks. "Yeah, Nance, I'm playing Dungeons and Dragons with a bunch of kids. You got me. What's your point." 

"This is weird." She crosses her arms. 

"Well, my friends aren't exactly talking to me and you're being openly hostile, so my social options are a little slim. Are we done here? I'm kind of in the middle of something." 

"For now, I guess," she answers, when she can't think of anything else to demand to know. 

Sarcastically, Steve salutes her, and heads back to the table. "Okay," he says. "So I'm an elf." 

"Half elf," Dustin clarifies. 

"You greet your party members and make introductions," Mike says. "But quickly, because you have to leave on your mission." 

It doesn't sound fun at all, but Steve looks into it. He doesn't look back at her even once, so eventually Nancy leaves. 

"I think he just likes them," Jonathan says later that night, when she tells him about it. "They kind of saved the world together." 

He's probably right. But that has Nancy's chest feeling strange, so she doesn't say anything back. 

 

 

Once he gets the hang of rolling dice and adding shit up, the game's actually pretty fun. Mike has some cool ideas, and the guys are a good team. Max is learning too, so it's not like Steve's being a drag. 

Even if he was, he doesn't think any of them would tell him. That's kind of nice, to feel like he still has a little sway. It's nice to see all these kids laughing, too. Instead of screaming and running from shit. 

Around ten, Lucas’ mom comes to pick him and Dustin up, so the game's over. While the kids are all cleaning up, Mrs. Sinclair turns to Steve. "Thank you so much for keeping an eye on him," she says, and slips him five dollars. 

"You don't need to pay me," he starts, but she stops him. 

"You sacrificed a Friday night," she says. "I insist." 

"You get paid to play D&D with us?" Mike says after the Sinclairs are gone. 

"Apparently," Steve shrugs. He doesn't need the money, honestly, and he starts to get an idea about what to do with it while they're all cleaning up the kitchen. "Hey," he says then. "What if we save this money." 

"For what?" Will asks. 

"For fun. For more little figures or missions or whatever. Whatever everybody wants." Steve shrugs. "What do you think?" 

"That'd be awesome," Mike says with a huge grin. "Really?" 

"Yeah, really. I'll keep it safe for this, then." 

"That's so cool," Max says to herself, as she puts cookies into a Tupperware, and Steve fights a smile of his own. 

"It is," he agrees, and the kids all groan. 

The phone rings in the following silence, and Will sighs a little. "It's probably my mom." 

It’s not. It's Hopper. "Hey," he says. "We're done early. Are the kids still there, can we stop by?" 

"Sure," Steve says. “Yeah, some of them are. Mike is.” 

"Alright. See you in a second." 

Steve hangs up the phone and tells everybody, "Hey. Hopper and El are coming by." Everybody's excited, but Mike's face absolutely lights up; kid's so gone for her, it almost hurts to watch. 

There's an awkward gap between when they finish cleaning up and anything else happening, so Steve lets the kids pick records to play, as long as they're careful not to scratch them, and he sits on the couch with his feet up and thinks. He's already got Dustin's present, a bunch of comics to round out his collection, and Max's, a set of orange wheels for her skateboard. He’s got his eye on a cool jacket for Lucas, but Mike and El and Will are hard to shop for. 

He remembers getting Jonathan that camera last Christmas, and that cements his will. He needs to get something that good for every one of them, to really make their year. 

The door slams open, and Eleven runs in. She doesn’t do anything halfway; she runs right into Mike for a hug that looks like it hurts. “I missed you,” she says softly. 

“I missed you too,” Mike mumbles into her shoulder, then pulls back to look her in the face. “How’s your mom?” 

“Mama is the same.” 

Mike nods. “Okay. Do you want some snacks? We can get them back out.” He looks to Steve for approval.

“Yeah, go for it,” Steve says. 

“Thank you,” Eleven says, in her firm polite tone. Then she goes on to eat about six thousand cookies, while listening to Mike, Max, and Will tell her about the game they just played. 

Nancy comes in while they’re talking, and she looks at them for a moment before coming over to Steve. “Hey,” she says. 

“Hey. You gonna yell at me again?” 

“No,” she says, with a grumpy look. She sits down next to him on the couch and puts her feet up. “I’m sorry. I’m just kind of… suspicious. Ever since everything at Halloween.” 

“Yeah,” Steve says. “I get it.” But he also doesn’t. She made him promise to keep the kids safe. He did that. Somehow that still wasn’t good enough for her. 

“You like my kid brother?” she says, looking over at him. 

“He’s alright. Real smart.” Like his sister. 

El has to leave after about twenty minutes. Hopper is still protective of her, and Steve can’t blame him. At any given time, he’s a few minutes away from putting all the kids in the basement and guarding them with his life. 

Once El’s gone, Mike joins Will and Max again, fucking around with the record player. They settle on a recent Wham! song.

“You taking Will home?” Steve thinks to ask. 

“Yeah,” Nancy nods. They’re quiet for a little bit, listening to the music. “Steve. I think I lashed out at you unfairly,” she finally says. “At the party.” 

“Nah,” Steve says, looking at his fingernails. “I shouldn’t have asked you to pretend with me.” 

She leans a little closer. “I really hope we can stay friends,” Nancy says in a quiet voice. “I’ll still help you with your college essays and everything.” 

College is the last thing on his mind. He has no idea if he’ll even go. “Of course we’ll stay friends, Nance,” he says anyways, because Nancy likes being in charge and helping, and he doesn’t want a fight. “Take the kids home, it’s fine.” 

“Okay. Can I use your bathroom first?” 

“Go for it.” 

She smiles a little, and heads upstairs. She likes that bathroom better, Steve recalls with a twinge of heartache. He’s so lame. He’d be fucked if anybody knew. 

“Why does George Michael wear an earring?” Mike asks, examining a record cover. “Is it cool?” 

“My dad says it’s cuz he’s queer,” Max says innocently. 

“Hey,” Steve speaks up. “Don’t say that. He’s got an earring cuz he’s all about glam and style, that’s why. And cuz he’s European. _My_ dad says they do stuff different there.” Steve considers delving into the whole issue of calling somebody queer as an insult, but these are just kids and he doesn’t need everybody knowing how liberal his family is. The one thing they share. That won’t do much for his plummeting popularity. 

“It’s not nice to call people queer,” Mike says quietly, and Steve makes a note to buy him a milkshake. 

“Well, my dad’s not nice,” Max mumbles. 

Billy walks in kind of abruptly. “Get the fuck away from that,” he barks at the kids, and while Max jumps, Mike just glares. And Will, the most gentle kid Steve’s ever known, crosses his arms and stays next to Mike. 

“Don’t order kids around in my house,” Steve says. “I told them it was fine. And don’t smoke in here.” 

After a long second when Steve has to embrace the possibility of getting in a fight, Billy crosses the room to put the cigarette out in the sink. Steve thinks about getting up to stand by the kids, but thinks better of it. Billy’s all about power. It’s better to act unthreatened. 

“Bye guys,” Max says, giving Mike and Will a joint hug. 

“Oh hey hold on,” Steve says, unpleasantly aware of how Billy’s watching. “I meant to tell you when everybody was here, but I can do this next weekend. So. Does that work?” 

“Hell yeah,” Mike grins. 

“Watch it,” Steve sighs. “If you come back from my house cussing up a storm your mom’s not gonna like me anymore.” 

“Yeah right.” Mike picks the needle up and puts a new record on. Duran Duran, Steve’s impressed. “We’ll tell Dustin and Lucas.” 

“And El, if she can make it,” Steve says, which makes Mike smile again.

“Max,” Billy says ominously. He’s back by the hall to the front door, and something about him seems itching for a fight. 

“I’m coming,” Max grumbles. “God. Bye Steve.” She stomps past Billy to the door, and Billy stalks after her. Steve loves her guts, but he knows for a fact that if she has a single bruise on her next time he sees her, he’s coming after Billy with the bat. 

“Bye,” he calls after them, and Billy flips him off before following his sister out the door. 

When he’s gone, the last two boys come and sit by Steve on the couch. Mike spreads out on one end, and Will sits closer, leaning back against where Steve’s arm is stretched across the back of the couch. “That guy’s a real piece of work,” he says. 

“He is,” Steve agrees. “But he’s not going to touch you.” 

“We know,” Mike says from the other side of the couch. He’s getting tall, it’s more obvious from how he’s sprawled out on the couch. “Still an ass, though. And I know that’s a swear.” 

“I might be forced to start a swear jar, if you keep this up. A dime for every swear word. Fifty cents if you say fuck.” 

“Can we use it for McDonald’s or something?” Mike suggests. 

“Sure.” 

Nancy comes downstairs then, and says, “Mike, Will. I’m taking you two home, c’mon. I’ll see you later,” she says to Steve.

“Yeah, later.” 

“See ya, Steve,” Mike waves as he’s walking away. Will gives Steve a hug and heads for the door too. 

“Bye,” he calls after the three of them. And when the door shuts, he’s in this big house, alone. Again. 

If he and Nancy were still together, this is the kind of night he’d climb in the window to sleep with her. When the trees look a little too much like demogorgans, and he needs the bat in his hands again. So he takes the bat up to bed with him, he clears every room of the house before closing the door of his bedroom. 

He wishes he could check that everybody got home safe. He’ll see them Monday, at least. That’s gotta be good enough. 

 

 

Nancy still isn’t used to her brother knocking on the door of her room and actually wanting to talk. “Come in,” she says, expecting it to be Mom. But it’s Mike, looking just as awkward as she feels. “Hi. Is everything okay?” 

“Yeah,” he nods. “Can we talk?” 

“Sure.” 

He shuts the door behind them, and sits on the foot of her bed. And then he seems to have a hard time knowing how to approach this. “Do you ever feel weird that Mom and Dad don’t know?” he finally asks. 

“Oh yeah, all the time,” she replies immediately. “Of course.” 

“Right?” Mike seems relieved. “But we shouldn’t tell them.” 

“No.” Nancy shakes her head. “Definitely not. Even if we tried, they wouldn’t believe us.” 

Mike huffs out a little laugh. “Yeah. Can you imagine? Dad would just say ‘that’s nice.’ And Mom would think we’ve watched too much TV.” 

He’s right. Nancy laughs too, at the idea. “Jesus. Yeah, we can’t tell them. It’s not safe.” 

“Yeah. It’s just not safe this way, either. Like… Mrs. Byers knows.” 

Nancy nods. “Yeah, and Hopper.” 

“But to everybody else, we’re just still kids. And we can’t hang out all the time or people say it’s weird, and we can’t stay out too late even though we basically saved the world.” 

She narrows her eyes at him a little. “You don’t see Eleven enough?” 

He turns pink, and protests. “No! Not just her. Everybody! Steve and Max and all the guys too.” 

Steve. Nancy’s stomach twists. “Yeah,” she says. “I wish we lived closer. Or something.” 

“I mean in the summer we can hang out more,” Mike says. “But who knows what’ll happen before then.” 

Nancy chews on her lip. “Yeah. And you’re a little young to be sneaking out. Shouldn’t be walking anywhere on your own.” 

Mike doesn’t enjoy that, but he seems to agree. “And Jonathan,” he adds. “Is he freaked out? He doesn’t say anything to Will, and Will feels like he’s treating him like a baby.” 

“He’s probably just trying to protect him.” 

“No, I know, but. It still sucks. And we’re worried about Steve too.” 

“We,” Nancy manages. 

“Yeah, all of us. He’s all alone most of the time, and now that you broke up with him he doesn’t have anybody to talk to, right?” 

Nancy begrudgingly has to admit, “Yeah, that’s a… pretty good point.” She doesn’t have to be that person, though. He wasn’t even talking to her, towards the end. At least Jonathan talks. Mike’s giving her a look, though. An unamused one. “What?” she says. 

“You’re still friends, aren’t you? Friends talk.” 

“Well, yeah. But I don’t want him to get the wrong idea.” 

“Then come over sometime when we go over.” 

She looks at her little brother in a bit of a new light, here. “Buffer,” she says speculatively. “A bunch of kids watching a movie.” 

“I’m not a kid. But yeah,” he smiles after a second. “Like that.” 

Nancy leans back into her pillows, speculative. “Since when do you care so much about Steve?” she says, looking at the ceiling. 

“Since he went to bat for us against a demogorgon.” 

“Yeah.” Nancy can’t stop herself from smiling a little. “Yeah, he has a way of doing that. He beat one up for me and Jonathan. And then we set it on fire.” 

Mike raises his eyebrows. “Dude,” he says. “We have to talk about that stuff more. What the hell? When was that? Last year?” 

“Yeah,” she nods. “I don’t know where you were.” 

“With Eleven, she was kind of… screaming the demogorgon to death.” He makes a face as he says it, because he knows it sounds crazy. “Yeah. We definitely have to talk.” 

“We should make a night of it,” Nancy says. “Get a pizza and stuff when Mom and Dad are out.” 

“That'd be cool.” 

“C’mere,” she says, holding her arm out, and although Mike is very much about being grown up he’s not above being held right now, it seems. He snuggles into her. “I’ll do what I can,” she says. “If you come with me, that won’t make them as suspicious. What are your grades like?” 

“Pretty good.” 

“Mom loves hearing you’re going to a study group. But you’ll have to actually do a little better.” 

“Wow. You’ve got all kinds of tricks.” 

“I do. And I think it’s time I start to teach them to you.” 

Mike leans over and hugs her properly, awkwardly. He’s almost as tall as her. “Yeah,” he says. “I’d like that.” 

They stay there together for a while, just breathing. “I’ll talk to Steve,” she finally says. “Are you talking to your friends?” 

“Yeah. Will and me. And El. And everybody.” 

“Good. And you can talk to me-“

“I know, Nance.” He squeezes, and then lets go. “If anything happens, I’ll hear about it on the walkie-talkie, from everybody else. And I’ll tell you. I promise.” 

“Awesome, thanks. You’re pretty cool, y’know,” she says, and Mike likes that a lot. 

“Am not,” he says. “But we did kinda save the world. So that was alright.” And that’s a pretty good summary, she thinks, for all of them. 

 

 

They’ve arranged a second hang-out this week, for dinner on Wednesday night when Steve’s parents are in Indianapolis. All the kids have told their parents it’s a study group, Steve hears from Dustin. So he expects six kids running up to him after school, but he doesn’t expect to see Jonathan and Nancy first. They’re by his car, though, waiting for him. 

“What’s up?” Steve says. 

“We’re coming,” Nance says firmly. “Meet you at your house?” 

“Sure.” It’s hard to look straight at her, when Jonathan’s around. Like he might give something away. “You want to study?” he adds. “Cuz I’m not a lot of help.” 

Nancy gives him the look he’d just started to forget, the one that’s mad when he calls himself stupid. “You are,” she says. “And we’ll work on your college essays.” 

Fuck college. “Okay. See you there, I’ll take the kids.” 

Unexpectedly, Nancy hugs him. Jonathan is unfazed, but Steve would fall down if she wasn’t holding him up. “Yep,” she says after, brisk and avoiding his eyes. “Bye.” 

Dustin comes up after, and the grin on his face makes it pretty clear he saw that. “Making moves?” he asks. 

“No,” he says. “That was platonic. You don’t know what you saw, dipshit,” he adds, when Dustin’s still grinning. “Come on.” 

“Whatever you say.” 

Mike and El are the next over, so wrapped up in each other that Steve doesn’t bother trying to say hi. Same with Lucas and Will, quarreling over some dork ass movie. And then Max is walking towards them, but she’s intercepted by her brother first. Steve tenses, watching Billy grab her arm tightly and say something. But Max is no shrinking violet. She twists out of Billy’s grip, says something back, and walks away, towards Steve. 

“Don’t worry about it,” she answers his unspoken question. “Let’s go.” 

“If you say so,” Steve says begrudgingly. But he glares at Billy, who’s looking at him with open contempt, and he remembers his bat is in his trunk if he needs it. He puts his hand on Max’s shoulder and herds her to the car. “What did he say?” 

“He wanted to know when to pick me up,” she says dismissively. “Said I’d be dead if I wasn’t out right away. Whatever.” 

“Okay. C’mon, kiddo. We’re going.” Steve keeps his eyes on Billy until the kids are in the car. He gets in last, though by that time Billy’s focused on the blonde chick by his car, so he tries to worry less. Just a little less. 

“You should get back together with Nancy,” Dustin says. He’s in the front seat with Max, and Steve is glad Hopper’s their friend because this is probably not super legal. 

“I’m not getting back together with Nancy,” Steve says. “She’s with Jonathan, and I’m cool with that.” 

“She’s perfect, though,” Dustin says. 

Mike groans loudly from the backseat. “As if.” 

Dustin scoffs. “Whatever. None of you know anything about romance.” 

Neither does Steve. Maybe he should’ve been a little more up front about that; when it comes to being real with somebody and getting them to like that, he has no fucking clue what he’s doing. 

The kids gather around the dining room table, so Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan sit on the couch with their books. Steve has his college essay, to appease Nancy, but it’s pretty clear that Nancy has an ulterior motive so he doesn’t do much. 

“Look,” Nancy finally says. She’s between him and Jonathan. “I think we should talk about what’s happening.” 

“And what’s happening?” Steve says innocently. 

“I like you, and I like Jonathan. And I don’t have a problem with it,” she says, despite bluster being one of her main tells. “And Jonathan doesn’t either.” 

“I don’t have any problem with it,” Steve says, following her train of thought. “So what’s your point?” 

“My point is, if we’re all so fine with it we should be friends. Like, actual friends. And we should talk about the crazy shit that’s happened in our lives.” 

“I would actually like to never talk about it,” Steve says under his breath. 

“Steve.” 

“What, Nance,” he snaps, and Jonathan gives him a sharp look. “I don’t think you get to lecture me about being more open when you told me I was bullshit last time we really talked.” 

Nancy gives her history textbook a very intense look. “I was drunk.” 

“You didn’t take it back after.” 

He watches the muscle in her jaw clench. She has a lovely jaw, he liked kissing it. “No,” she says. “I’m… we were all going through a lot.” 

That’s true. Steve looks at Jonathan. “Do you know? About Barb?” 

“I was there when El found her body,” Jonathan says apologetically. 

“Great. So the two of you can be honest with each other.” Steve’s tone is acidic, he realizes too late. It’s mean, and he never wanted to pull that shit with Nance. 

“Why don’t _you_ try to be honest,” Nancy challenges him, shutting her book to look at him fiercely. 

“Because you haven’t seemed that interested in it, recently,” he says, raising his eyebrows at her. 

“Oh, so this is my fault.” 

“It’s something,” he says, stubbornly refusing to stop the argument. “And I was doing everything I could, to be-“ He stops. This is a lot of conversation to have, in front of Nancy’s current boyfriend. 

“Come on,” Nancy says after a second, and the two of them retreat to the kitchen. “What. You were trying to be what. Normal?” 

“No, to be a good boyfriend,” he says, still terse but quieter. He doesn’t want the kids to hear them. “I was trying to be the best boyfriend, for you, that I could. I was… I was really trying,” he says, looking at the floor. This is fucking humiliating. “And I’m not trying to stop you, like I know you’ve made up your mind.” 

“Stop,” she says. “This isn’t a one or the other situation.” 

“Kinda seems like it.” 

“You were an amazing boyfriend,” she says, with all the firm and fiery resolve that made him fall in love with her in the first place. “You were. Okay? It wasn’t about that.” 

Then why’d we break up? That’s the real answer. But instead he just kind of shrugs. 

“Do you have nightmares?” she asks. “About the other place?” 

“Sometimes.” Every night. 

“You can still come over, when that happens.” 

He frowns. “You want me to come to your bedroom in the middle of the night and you don’t think your boyfriend’s gonna be pissed about that?” 

“He’ll be there too,” Nancy shrugs. “He sneaks out most nights, Mrs. Byers is fine with it. And look, Steve. When I say you’re still my friend, I mean it.” And, evidently to prove just how much she means it, she hugs him. 

It’s fucking pathetic, is what it is. How much he misses being held by her. So he hugs her back, just for a second, and then he lets go because he doesn’t want to make a move on someone else’s girl. He’s not a dirtbag. “Yeah, Nance, you’re mine too,” he says, kind of because he doesn’t have much else to say. Nancy Wheeler gets her way, and the rest of the world should just stand back and fucking watch. 

“Hey, Steve,” Will says. He and Max have ventured into the kitchen. “Do you have something to eat?” 

“Oh, right, dinner,” he nods. He has to think a little bit; there isn’t any food in the house, he needs to hit the grocery store. “Yeah. We could do McDonald’s, just this once. My treat. But someone needs to pick it up.” 

“I can,” Nancy says. “Me and Jonathan.” 

“Perfect.”

Max takes control of the ordering, making a neat list of everyone’s orders and importantly handing it to Nancy. “Thanks,” Nancy smiles at her, and that makes Max flush.

What Nancy said stays in his head, though. She likes both of them. And that does a little bit to calm his brain down, when he needs it to. He sits next to her and eats his burger and fries, and he tells himself that nothing’s out of hand. He can do all kinds of stuff. He can befriend Jonathan to make it easier with Nancy. He’s fine. 

For tonight, though, they get some actual studying done. Steve fixes up his college essay with notes from Nancy, Jonathan does some math, and the kids finish all kinds of worksheets they wave around as Nancy’s bullying them into packing up. 

Dustin and Lucas are picked up by Dustin’s mom, who pays Steve for his services. Ten more bucks for their savings. Nancy and Jonathan take El, Will, and Mike. So that just leaves Max. 

It leaves her for a while, actually. She ends up dozing on the couch while Steve does the dishes. He keeps glancing at the clock, weighing whether or not he should ask her if she’s sure Billy’s coming. It’s well past nine, and they’ve got school tomorrow. Though, worst case scenario, she can stay here in the spare room. Borrow a shirt, maybe, so things don’t look weird. 

It’s almost ten when he hears the front door open, heavy footsteps in the hall. It’s Billy, in his usual open shirt and general greasy aura. “About time,” Steve says, turning back to the sink to shut off the water. “You forget about her?” 

“No,” Billy grunts. He comes into the room now, unlike last time, and kind of stomps over to the dining room table. El didn’t finish all her food - Billy takes the last couple chicken nuggets and eats them, looking around. 

He’s not steady on his feet, but he seems pretty sober. And he’s a child-abusing fuck but he also seems hungry. Steve’s driven Max home, he knows they don’t live in the best neighborhood. Kids go hungry around there all the time. Especially kids that get on their parents’ nerves, probably. It’s like a hunch, but one he knows he shouldn’t fucking listen to. 

“There’s an extra burger in the fridge,” Steve says, and returns to the dishes. His heart’s in his throat. 

For a second, he doesn’t hear anything. Then Billy comes over, slow enough that Steve thinks about running away before he hears the fridge open. Seems like he guessed right. 

Billy leans on the counter near Steve - but not too near, not enough to worry. “Where’s your old man?” he asks with his mouth full. 

“My parents are out,” Steve answers tersely. 

“They’re out a lot.” 

“You even try and pull any shit and I’ll beat the shit out of you and then call Hopper and get you arrested for trespassing,” Steve says. He’s already tired of this. “Remember my bat? Your sister almost smashed your nuts with it.” 

“I’d love to see you fucking try,” Billy snarls back. “Remember stealing my car? How’s your Hopper guy feel about that?” 

“Pretty chill, I think.” Given that they took it to save his daughter’s life. 

“We’ll test that one day.” 

Steve doesn’t like the sound of that at all, and he doesn’t need another reason to jump at shit that bumps in the night. “Go ahead and try,” he says. “I’m on a hair trigger these days.” 

If anything, that just seems to spark mild curiosity from the other guy. “Noted,” he says, and goes to wake Max up. He finished that burger in about four bites. 

He’s not too rough with her this time, just shakes her and tells her, “Let’s go” in a gruff tone. But Max is still afraid of him and mad about it, so Steve keeps an eye on the two of them until they leave. 

“See ya, Steve,” Max stops in the door to say. 

“Bye. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Uh huh.” She flips her long hair over her shoulder and gets out the door. Billy follows, after a final look at Steve that’s got something behind it. 

 

 

Thursday, Nancy and Jonathan study in her room, door closed. Mom doesn’t make much of a big deal about it, but she doesn’t notice most things. So maybe she just didn’t notice them. Increasingly, Nancy’s grateful for Mike in this house. 

“Hey. What do you usually do in the summer?” she asks Jonathan. 

He looks up from his notebook. “Uh. I work, most of the time,” he says. “At the grocery store and the Radio Shack.” 

“And then what.” 

“I sleep. And eat. Hang out with Will, sometimes.” He shrugs. 

“And with me now, right?” 

“Right,” he says, but Jonathan’s not the kind to tell her she’s wrong. He’ll just do whatever he wants in the end, and that’s a little tough to deal with. 

“Jonathan,” she says, leaning towards him “This isn’t a trick. I just like spending time with you, and I’m trying to make plans. Mike was asking about what we’d do, so.” 

“Oh. Okay, yeah.” He shrugs. “I dunno.” 

Privately, Nancy’s beginning to have concerns about her and Jonathan only missing some sort of spark. She’s willing to try and fake it, though, and he isn’t even doing that. But she keeps trying. 

“We’ll probably see each other a lot anyways,” she says. “Since Will and Mike are joined at the hip.” 

“Yeah, definitely,” Jonathan says, and that’s it. 

There’s a knock on the door and it’s almost a relief. “Yeah?” Nancy says. 

Mom opens the door. “Your father and I are going out. Steve’s here taking care of Holly, so-“

“Steve?” Nancy repeats incredulously. “My ex-boyfriend is your baby sitter?” 

“Yes honey,” her mother says patiently. “I was trying to let you have a fun evening. And Steve is a great babysitter, Mrs. Sinclair gave him rave reviews.” 

“I can’t believe this,” Nancy says. 

“We’ll be back around eleven.” She doesn’t close the door behind her. 

“We should go downstairs,” Jonathan says then. “It’s weird if we don’t.” 

Nancy couldn’t disagree even if she wanted to. They pack up and move down to the living room without talking much more about it, and she tells herself firmly that that’s not weird. Jonathan’s just quiet. He has trust issues. 

Steve’s there already with Holly in his arms, and Mike is talking his ear off. Steve’s smiling, but when he sees Nancy it kind of drops off. “Hey,” he says. 

“Hi,” Nancy says. Jonathan kind of waves. And that almost breaks the ice, so it’s good enough. They work at the table, Steve and Holly and Mike sit on the floor. Holly plays with her blocks while Steve and Mike have a quiet conversation, and Nancy tells herself that she doesn’t want to be sitting there with them. 

But she's never been good at telling herself anything that isn’t true. She knows what’s true. So she gets up and gets herself a glass of cider, and then she takes Jonathan and Steve one too. 

“What the hell?” Mike says. “Where’s mine?” 

“Language,” Steve and Nancy say in unison, and almost in the same tone. Nancy can’t exactly look at him after that. 

“It’s on the counter,” she adds, so Mike rolls his eyes and gets up to get his own. 

“You don’t have to do this,” Steve says when it’s just them. “I’m fine.” 

“I know I don’t,” she says. “I’m just… being hospitable.” 

“Right,” he says. “You don’t have to.” 

Nancy can handle a lot of things, but what she absolutely cannot put up with is neither of the men in her life speaking to her. “Y’know what,” she says. “This isn’t okay. None of this is. Sit on the couch.” 

Steve is unimpressed by her authoritative tone, but he sits on the couch. 

“Jonathan,” she says, turning to give him the most imposing stare she can muster. “You too.” 

“What is happening,” he mutter as he obeys. 

Nancy stands in front of them, arms crossed. “Listen. Both of you are being weird, and I don’t like it. I like both of you. Is that so hard to believe? Can we really not be friends because I’m a girl, or whatever?” 

Jonathan kind of shrugs. Steve sighs. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you being a girl,” he says. 

“Then what is it?” 

“Well, you’re his girl now so I don’t-“ 

“I’m nobody’s girl,” Nancy says indignantly. 

“Well, but you’re dating, right?” 

Not officially. That’s the awkward truth. Jonathan hasn’t said anything about it, and Nancy doesn’t want to have to ask. Her silence tells enough, though, and something about Steve relaxes. 

“Okay look,” he says. “I will if you will.” 

“Will what?” 

“Be honest. Be cool. Okay?” He looks at Jonathan, including him too. 

“Yeah,” Jonathan finally says after a second. “Sure, okay.” 

“You could start by telling me if you babysit any more of the children in my life,” Nancy says, which makes everybody smile. 

“Nobody else,” Steve says. “I’m gonna hit the head, can you keep an eye on Holly for a second?”

“Yep.” 

“Wow,” Mike says when Steve’s gone. He walks back in from the kitchen, and Nancy realizes she kind of forgot Mike was here while she was lecturing the boys. “You’re a badass.”

Jonathan snorts, Nancy gives Mike a begrudgingly amused look. “We just don’t have time for misunderstandings,” she says. “Who knows when the world will end again?” 

Her little brother looks older than he should when he nods at that. “Can El come over?” he asks, like that’s in response. 

Nancy’s first instinct is to say no, but then she thinks that maybe those instincts are why kids have to sneak out to see each other. “Sure,” she says. “If Hopper says yes, I’ll call him.” 

There’s kind of this understanding between all of them, the older people who know about everything that happened. Hopper kind of sighs and agrees, no question, so in about ten minutes there’s a knock on their front door. 

Steve answers the door with the baby, comes back with El in tow too. “I’m gonna take her home,” he says. “You’ve got a couple hours.” 

Mike doesn’t hear him, he’s already completely absorbed in every single thing El says and does. Nancy knows the feeling. 

Steve plops back down on the couch on the other side of Nancy. Jonathan’s rather obstinately remaining focused on the notebook in his lap, and Nancy can’t tell if it’s his normal quiet thing or something like jealousy. She considers doing something differently, and then she decides to stick to her guns. She likes both of them. She isn’t picking. If that’s a problem, they can tell her. 

El and Mike head up to his room, and Nancy resists the urge to tell Mike to keep his door open. It’s hard to know if that’s doing the right thing. But then, Steve doesn’t say anything either. Just watches and mumbles half to himself, “They’re growing up fast.”

“I know,” Nancy nods. “I’m trying to keep up.” 

“You’re doing just fine.” 

“Will doesn’t talk about it,” Jonathan says. “He won’t.” 

Kind of rich, coming from him. It’s not like he talks either. “No kidding,” Steve says. “He talks to the kids, doesn’t he?” 

“Yeah. But they weren’t there. When we got that thing out of him.” Jonathan bites his lip, looks up at Nancy. “You know?” 

“Maybe it’s cuz they weren’t there,” Nancy says. “That’s a lot, to like. Deal with in his mind. You haven’t talked about it at all?” 

“No,” he shakes his head. 

“Maybe he wants you to go first,” Steve says. “I know I couldn’t wrap my mind around that shit. I can barely wrap my mind around the shit we’ve done, and I didn’t have a demon in me.” Holly is asleep on his chest, and Nancy wonders briefly if they shouldn’t talk about this around her. But Steve looks content with her on his chest, and she’s asleep anyways. 

“It wasn’t a demon,” Jonathan says. 

“Yeah, no. I just meant that it possessed him. Whatever it was.” Steve looks over, past Nancy to Jonathan. “Y’know. Exorcism style.”

“Black smoke came out,” Jonathan volunteers. “When it left him.” 

Nancy nods when Steve seems doubtful. “It was crazy.” 

“Black smoke,” Steve repeats. “Christ. I guess that would make a kid feel like maybe his brother thinks he’s a freak.” 

“I guess,” Jonathan says. 

“You speaking from experience?” Nancy asks Steve after a second. 

“Yeah, I’ve got an older brother,” Steve answers, sounding almost shy about it. “A lot older.” 

“You do?” 

Steve sighs deeply, and “Yeah. My, uh. My mom was married before. She doesn’t like to talk about it.” 

Nancy knows her mother would turn that into the juiciest gossip Hawkins has had for a year. “Good idea.”

“No kidding.” 

“Sisters?” Nancy asks after a second. 

“Yeah, two of them, too.”

That explains a lot, too. Steve understood a lot, when they were together, and part of Nancy assumed it was because he’d been with so many other girls. “Do you still talk?” she says. 

“Sometimes. They’re five and seven years older than me, so. Don’t have a whole lot in common now. And they’re in Chicago, so.” 

“Where’s your brother?” Jonathan asks. 

“In the ground,” Steve answers easily enough. “He was the oldest, my parents got married cuz of him. So. He fought in Vietnam, died there. I didn’t really know him.” 

That fucking hangs there in the silence for a second. “Steve,” Nancy says. “Shit.” 

“It’s fine Nance, it’s not a big deal.”

It kind of is. She leans over after a second and pulls him closer, his head down on her shoulder. “Steve,” she says again, and he lets out a deep breath. 

“You’re the one who wanted me to say more shit,” he mumbles. 

“I stand by it,” Nancy says firmly. She looks over at Jonathan, and for once he doesn’t look uncomfortable in his skin. He’s shut the notebook, and he fiddles with the end of his pen. She watches him work himself up to talk, and then he actually does it. 

“Yeah, you can talk to us,” Jonathan says. “We’ll understand.” 

“Thanks, Byers. You too, y’know. And you too,” he says to Nancy. “All your shit. Even Barb.” 

Nancy smiles. “Okay.” She motions Jonathan closer, and he scoots towards her but doesn’t lean in. She hears the same two words that have been troubling her since they visited Bauman. _Trust issues_. But they all have issues, and trust is a hard thing to just have. Even if you’ve faced a demogorgan down together. But maybe, with her here in the middle, they can make something. 

 

 

Fridays have finally started to mean something different. Steve gets home from school to an empty house, as usual, but two hours later the kids spill through the front door a few at a time, loud and so excited to see him, and it’s easier to forget how alone he feels. 

Will’s there first with Jonathan, who asks if he can stay too. “Of course, dude,” Steve answers, and right about then is when he gets the feeling that Nancy’s going to come too. And he’s right, it turns into all nine of them here. Steve’s committed to the campaign, so Jonathan and Nancy sit on the couch and watch. 

“I still don’t understand why our party has two bards,” Lucas says while they’re all setting up. “Of all the classes to double up on.” 

“Excuse you,” Dustin says. “Two people to seduce means twice the chance we’ll get away with more shit. If my checks fail, Steve’s are our backup.” 

“Hey, I’m not a backup,” Steve objects. “I got higher skills in Dexterity than Dustin. And Stealth.” He checks his sheet. 

“You’re our dark bard,” Max says. “Super cool. Chaotic neutral, instead of chaotic good.” 

Lucas is not impressed. “We could’ve used a barbarian,” he says. “Or a rogue. He’s basically a rogue.” 

“Then what’s your problem? It’s fine,” Mike says. “We’re starting. When we last left you, you were standing in a circle on the train tracks. In the distance, you see an old friend walking your way.” 

“It’s El,” Dustin sighs. 

“A half-elf mage,” Mike continues louder, “with a distinctive hat. Rowena the Loud.” 

El smiles. Her title was her idea. “Hello friends.”

“Did you get up to some fun shit without us?” Steve asks. 

“Yes,” Eleven nods. “I did. What are you up to?” 

Dustin gives her a huge thumbs up - he’s been teaching her slang. “We’ve been facing a giant spider, dude, and now we have spider fangs as special daggers. You can probably have one.” 

“Steve has the extra fangs,” Mike says. 

Steve checks his sheet. He has three fangs. As the sneaky one, he felt it was most appropriate for him to take the extras, and maybe it’s not in character to give El one but fuck it. He’s doing it anyways. “Yeah, sure take one. I give El one of them.”

“Okay. Erase it from your character sheet, and El, write it down.” Mike rolls, and that’s never good. “And while you’re exchanging fangs and pleasantries, two wolves run out of the woods and attack.” 

“I’d like to roll to tame them,” Will says. 

“Well, we have to roll for initiative,” Mike says. “So you can when it’s your turn.” 

Turns out Will rolled a crit, so he does get to go first, and because his nature cleric has a +4 on animal handling, when he rolls a fifteen Mike has no choice but to allow Will to tame one of the wolves. “Roll separately to tame the second wolf,” Mike says, to try to prolong the fight, and Will rolls an eleven, which isn’t enough. 

As they play, Steve sees Nancy and Jonathan getting more into the game, putting aside their homework to pay attention. Jonathan starts reading Will’s list of spells, talking to him about what to cast. Nancy reads the notes Mike’s made over his shoulder, flipping pages that he flips back, annoyed, when he notices. And Steve has to wonder, are they interested cuz he’s interested, or cuz they’ve never really paid attention before. 

They have to call it quits around ten. Fiver hours isn’t their ideal campaign length, but they’ve decided it’s fine as long as they’re doing it more often, though the debate is had again every time they’re packing up. 

Well, it’s started. Mike and El have stopped participating, and Max rolling her eyes spells doom for any protests from Lucas and Dustin. And Will doesn’t start arguments. “We should have sleepovers,” he says instead. “Mom would probably let it happen at our house, right Jonathan?” 

Jonathan shrugs. “Maybe, yeah.”

“Yeah, or we could do it here,” Steve nods. 

“I could tell my mom I’m going to El’s,” Max says. “And just leave out all the boys, y’know?” 

Nancy and Steve share a look, and then El and Steve. “What about when they drop you off, though,” Steve says. 

“It’ll be Billy,” Max shrugs, but she’s starting to see their point. “I mean he doesn’t really pay enough attention to me to try and get me in trouble.” 

“I feel like he’ll make an exception,” Dustin says under his breath. 

Steve agrees. He also thinks there has to be some way out of this. Max isn’t gonna miss out on this. “We’ll figure something out,” he says. 

Jonathan and Nancy casually make their way over to Steve while the kids sneak a last cookie of the night. “I have an idea,” Jonathan says. “But it’s not a guarantee.” 

“Well, what is it?” Nancy asks impatiently.

He looks at Steve. “You should make Billy your friend,” he says. 

“The guy who’s been kicking my ass in practice and who beat the shit out of me to try and hurt the kids. That’s the guy you want me to play nice with?” Steve demands incredulously. But he thinks about Billy eating a burger in the kitchen, and he thinks, maybe. Maybe he could do it. But he shouldn’t. 

“He’s obsessed with you,” Jonathan says. “Yeah.” 

“He’s fucking pond scum,” Steve says quietly, looking at Max. “He hurt Max, and he hurt Lucas, and being his friend isn’t going to erase any of that. Like. Any of it,” he repeats, to stress it. 

Nancy looks torn; she looks between the two of them. “There might be a better solution,” she finally says. “One that doesn’t involve Steve probably getting his ass kicked again.” 

“Thanks, Nance,” he snorts.

Jonathan shrugs. “I just think it would work,” he says. “I mean you made friends with me. Against my will, basically. So.” 

Steve raises his eyebrows. “Okay. Well, I appreciate the vote of confidence, man. I’ll think about it. But if I get my face smashed one more time I’m gonna have to worry about permanent brain damage.” 

“If he touches you, I’ll smash _his_ face.” Nancy crosses her arms. “So don’t worry about that.” 

Steve loves that fighting instinct of hers, as much as it blows up in her face. He thinks he catches Jonathan feeling the same way, smiling at her and a little scared all at once. “Okay,” Steve says. “I guess I’ll just have to keep you two around.”

“I certainly hope so,” Nancy smiles. Steve has to look away.

Will wanders over then, looking tired. Correction: he always is tired, ever since Halloween, but he looks it right now. “Are we going soon?” he asks. 

“Yeah, buddy, we can go,” Jonathan says, pulling his brother into his side. “Come on. I’ll see you guys later,” he says to Steve and Nancy, and they leave pretty soon. 

Jonathan takes Dustin and Lucas with them too, so it’s just the Wheelers, El, and Max. And frankly Steve doesn’t care of these four never leave. They help him clean up everything, and then everybody flops onto the couch together. El sits near Steve, for once, and Max ends up with her head in Nancy’s lap. And Mike’s between them, looking very content. 

“You guys have to get home?” Steve eventually asks, as much as he doesn’t want to. 

“Mom and Dad are on their date night, which means they’re arguing in a restaurant somewhere. So we’re fine,” Nancy says, and Mike snorts. 

“They would barely notice anyways,” he says. “And we’re taking El, too.” 

“Nobody listens,” Max murmurs. Nancy is playing with her hair. “Ever. I wish I could run away. My dad would kill me, though.” 

“Your dad?” Steve says. She doesn’t talk about him much. As in ever. 

“Yeah. Well, my step-dad. Billy’s dad. He’s…” 

In the silence, Nancy looks at Steve, looking urgent. It’s El who finds the words. “He’s a bad man,” she says. 

“Yeah,” Max agrees, but she doesn’t say anything else.

“How bad?” Steve says after a second. Might as well get it out in the open, if they’re gonna try to lie to her parents. They should know the stakes. 

“Mom doesn’t let him touch me,” Max says, like it’s fine. “It’s just… I shouldn’t push it.” 

“Definitely," Nancy says. “We won’t. We’ll think of something.” But she gives Steve a look, and he knows that look. That’s the one telling him she already has thought of it, and it’s befriending Billy. 

Steve doesn’t tell her no often, but this time, he’s gonna have to. 

It’s after midnight. Everyone’s asleep, even Steve. They just kinda dozed off. Steve locked the door for once, so when there’s a pounding on the door he wakes up to stop it, angry and half asleep. He grabs the bat on the way. And once he’s opened the door, bat held up high over his shoulder, it registers who the only person would be that’s knocking this late and why he definitely shouldn’t provoke him. 

“Jesus, man,” he sighs, and lowers the bat. “You’re a little late, y’know.”

“It’s not like she’s going anywhere,” Billy grumbles. Steve’s rubbing his eyes, but just the sound of him is a little off. It’s strange. And when Steve opens his eyes and looks at him clearly, he sees bruises and split lip. There’s something dark in Billy’s hair that looks like it might be blood, too. 

“Everybody’s asleep. If you keep it down you can come inside for a sec,” Steve yawns. It’s really cold out, and Billy’s jean jacket isn’t a winter coat. And Steve’s thinking about Jonathan, about the idea of turning Billy to their side and second chances and how if he never got one from Nancy he wouldn’t know any of the most important people in his life. 

“Nice bat,” Billy says, jerking Steve out of his thoughts, and pushes past him into the house. 

Steve follows him into the kitchen, watches the guy open the fridge and whispers, “Sure you can have something to eat, thanks for asking.” He pushes Billy out of the way - sort of gently - and pulls open the freezer, tosses a bag of frozen corn at the other guy. He doesn’t wait to see how Billy reacts, he turns back to the fridge and digs through the tupperwares of leftovers. Weird and bullshit as it sounds, it seems like Billy responds to whether or not they seem afraid of him. And Steve’s not afraid anyways. He took out a demogorgan. A high school bully is kid stuff. 

Steve then remembers, too late, that Eleven is here, and he’s got a sense of dread he can’t quite shake off. Something’s gonna go wrong. 

He gives Billy the container of pasta salad and a fork, gets out the pizza rolls that are left too, and the carrot sticks. Then he leans against the closed fridge door, props the bat against his foot and closes his eyes halfway again. 

The light above the sink is on, but nothing else. They’re within the circle of dim light, and Steve can’t get quite enough of a look at Billy’s face to judge what exactly happened to him.

Billy eats most of the pasta salad, comes up to Steve and tosses the container on the counter to pick up the pizza rolls next. And he eats most of those too, quick like he thinks Steve might change his mind. He even eats a couple of the carrot sticks, last and slower. But he eats them. 

“Can you calm down, in practice?” Steve finally says. 

“What, so you’re bribing me?” Billy reacts instantly. “Cuz you can’t hang? Fuck off, Harrington.” And he takes a loud bite of carrot stick. 

Steve rolls his eyes and feels very exhausted by this. “Shh,” he says. “And no. I’m asking you to be cool, if you want me to be cool.” 

Billy steps closer, into better light. He does have the corn over the side of his head, and he flips it while Steve’s watching, to the other more frozen side. “So the king wants his place back,” he begins in a low taunting tone.

“No,” Steve cuts him off. “Take it, or whatever. But when we’re playing actual games we’ll have to work together, and we need to practice that. That’s what practice is for,” he adds. 

Billy clenches his jaw. “Don’t you fucking lecture me. You want me to crack your jaw again?”

“I’m not. It was a joke, dude.” Steve doesn’t let himself respond to the menace in Billy’s tone, or the threat. He’s got a bat, and a telekinetic thirteen year old and goddamn Nancy Wheeler on his side. He stays relaxed. He’s going to make Max’s life easier, and get her brother to be less of a piece of fucking work. 

He can feel coldness coming off of Billy in waves, actual chill, and Steve weighs a couple paths here. Hostility or kindness or something in between. Billy’s kept his voice down the whole time. 

Before he picks what to do, something moves in the other room. Someone gets up and walks towards them, and when it’s close enough Steve sees it’s Eleven. Which, great but also. Fuck. “Hey El,” he says. “Sorry.” 

“Not you,” she assures him. “I’m thirsty.” El turns to look at Billy, gives him a perfunctory look from head to toe and says, “Hello.” 

“Hello,” Billy echoes. He sounds surprised. Steve knows the feeling; El is pretty confident, and that’s surprising out of a kid. 

“Steve,” El says as she fills a glass, and then a second one. 

“Yeah, kiddo.” 

“Who is this?” 

Steve fights a smile pretty hard, avoids looking at Billy so he doesn’t laugh. She definitely knows who this is. “Max’s brother,” he says. 

El’s face is hard but she just turns the faucet off. She hands one glass to Billy, and takes a sip from the other one. “You hurt Max,” she says. 

“She’s fine,” Billy retorts. He’s looking at the glass of water in surprise.

“She is not,” El says. “I know bad men when I see them.” 

Steve puts his hand on her shoulder, and he’s honestly almost scared to do that. “El, c’mon. We should wake everybody up, it’s late.” 

Eleven sees right through that, of course. She’s smart. But she drains her glass, puts it in the sink, and says, “I was busy when you fought before. I am not busy now. And no one will crack Steve’s jaw. Even when he makes bad jokes.” 

“Am I getting threatened by a fucking kid?” Billy demands. 

“Yes, you fucking are,” El says calmly, and walks away. 

Steve doesn’t disagree with a single thing Eleven said, but he really doesn’t want her to snap Billy’s neck as he’s heard she’s inclined to do. He rubs his eyes again, because he’s exhausted, and says, “She grew up in a cult, she says some weird shit.” 

“She needs to learn some fucking respect,” Billy growls, but Steve’s already walking away. He doesn’t relish the idea of trying to teach El anything. 

Eleven wakes Max up, so Steve gets Mike and Nancy up and moving. They should probably go home too. “Who’s in the kitchen?” Nancy whispers once she’s awake. 

“Billy,” Steve answers with distaste he can’t quite hide. 

“He ate all our pizza rolls,” Eleven adds. 

“You gave him our food?” Mike mumbles, still mostly asleep.

“Yeah, what can I say. Moment of weakness.” 

Nancy gets to her feet and makes a break for the kitchen, and Steve says, “Fuck,” under his breath very quietly. 

“You owe money too, now,” Max says, and gets up. 

Steve follows her back to the kitchen, just in time to hear Nancy say, “So who’d you pick a fight with today?” 

“Nance!” Steve says sharply. 

“My old man, bitch,” Billy says over him. His leg jerks like it’s kicked out from under him, and he falls to his knees. 

Four sets of eyes turn to Eleven, who looks very pleased with herself. “We should leave,” she says. “Goodbye.” She hugs Steve and Max goodbye, ignores Billy completely. 

“Well, I guess we’re leaving,” Nancy says. She’s mad, but she’s smiling about it which Steve’s cautiously optimistic about. “See you later.” 

“Bye Nancy,” Max says, something close to shy. 

“Bye Max.” Nancy gives Steve a look on the way out the door, though, and the look tells him they need to talk. 

Mike gives Steve a awkward one armed hug, high-fives Max, and then they’re all three out the door. Just the Hargroves and Steve. 

“You and your band of freaks are really asking for it,” Billy says. 

“Well, you’re the one with my food on your concussion.” Steve is not surprised that that gets him the bag of corn thrown straight at his head; he catches it, and says, “Don’t come inside, then. Next time.” 

“Fuck you, you think I want to be in this fucking tacky house? Your parents got money but no idea what to do with it.” 

“Oh. Well I’m sorry there aren’t fucking… posters and electric guitars all over. I’ll give them your notes.” Billy pulls his arm back to punch Steve, but Steve just holds up his bat and that gets the fist dropped. Max is terrified anyways though, and Steve can’t do shit about that. “Get out, I don’t want a fight.” 

Billy kind of drags her out by the hand. It’s hard not to follow them out, try and beat the guy senseless. But honestly, he doesn't think he could. It'd just make it worse.

He locks every door, checks them twice and is on the steps up to the bedroom when his phone rings. He thinks about the phone ringing at the Byers’ and his steps falter, but then he takes the last few steps two at a time and gets there to answer the line in his room. 

“Hello?” 

“You invited Billy Hargrove inside?” Nancy says on the other end, her voice a little tinny. 

Steve smiles. “Hi. Yeah.” 

“Why?” 

“Cuz Jonathan kind of had a point, even if it’s the longest long shot in the world. If we could get him on our side, it’d make Max’s life easier. But.” 

“You don’t think you can do it?” 

“I can do it,” Steve answers without thinking. “Sure. But I don’t know how much I actually want to be the friend of a guy that beats on his little sister.” 

“So lie,” Nancy says, easy as breathing. 

“Right. Yeah, I get that but like. What if we just scare the shit out of him and keep him away from her that way?” 

“Well, that’s less reliable.” Nancy’s voice sounds a lot closer to the phone now; Steve pictures her with the phone tucked between her ear and her shoulder and has to clear his throat. 

“I know.” 

“And he’s dangerous. If he gets it in his head there’s some kind of grudge match, he could corner you somewhere or something.” 

“Yeah Nance, I don’t really need another thing to be scared of right now,” Steve says, voice cracking. “Thanks though.” 

“Sorry. Do you want to come over?” 

“Is Jonathan there?” 

“No.” 

“Then no.” It’d be dangerous, sleeping next to Nancy again. He can’t risk it. “Tomorrow though. I could make you guys brunch.” 

“Sure. Around ten?” 

“Yeah, I can do that.” He hesitates, wrapping the cord around his finger and unwrapping it. “I’ll guess you aren’t cool with letting El snap his neck.” 

Nancy snorts. “Surprisingly, I remain against murder. Yes.” 

“Okay. Just a thought. I’ll see you around.” 

“I’m glad we’re talking again, Steve,” she says, and Steve clenches his jaw tightly before answering. 

“Yeah, me too Nance. G’night.” 

“Good night.”

He wishes he could go over to her after all, and curl up next to her in bed. Ride out the nightmares together. Instead the nightmares wake him up every few hours. But he’s used to that. 

 

 

Mike's D&D days are different now that Nancy's interested in them too. Instead of vague annoyance and avoidance, she's helping him set up, making snacks, and running interference with Mom and Dad. She also answers the door, and not just because she knows it's Steve. But she does. Jonathan already brought Will over, left because he’s got stuff to do, he says. 

"Hi," she says when she opens the door. She can't help herself from smiling at the sight of him. 

"Hi, Nance," he answers, and Dustin, Max, and Lucas all run in past them. "They're up to something," he tells her, watching them go. "They were whispering the whole car ride." 

"They've probably planned some sort of mutiny to make Mike's life miserable," Nancy says. “They’re big on mutinies.” 

Steve snorts, and when she holds her arm out he comes in for a quick hug. “Could’ve included me,” he says. “I’m part of the team.” 

“Then it’s something else. How are you doing?” 

“I’m fine,” he says slowly. “Why, what.” 

“Nothing. I’m just asking.” 

“Okay.” 

Nancy gives him a look. “You’re being weird again.” 

“Sorry.” Steve looks at her, just looks at her. “How about you, how are you?” 

“I’m doing okay. Though it doesn’t really feel… right. Without everybody around. It’s weird.” 

Steve huffs out a laugh. “Yeah. The end of the world group. Freaks all around.” 

“Is that so bad?” Nancy asks, trying not to be hurt. 

“Nah,” he says after a second. “It’s fine. Sorry, I’m just in a shitty mood.” He stuffs his hands deep in his pockets, and Nancy knows his tells well enough to know that this is a big one. 

“You can talk to me,” she says. 

“I know. I gotta get to the game,” he mumbles and breaks for the basement stairs. 

Nancy’s interested in the game, but she also has homework. As a compromise, she sits on the steps and takes notes on her English textbook, does her math homework, and writes a first draft of an essay. 

Three hours in they break for snacks, running up the steps around Nancy. Steve is the last one up, dragging his feet a bit. “Hey,” he says. “So.” 

“So,” Nancy echoes. 

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I am. But look, okay. You don’t like Jonathan?” 

Nancy glares, already unamused. “I love you both,” she says. 

“Oh, you love me,” Steve bites back. “Now you say it.” 

“Yeah, I love you. Not in love with you. Steve, you’re one of my two real friends in the world. I love you, that was never even up for debate.” 

“Okay…” he says, prompting her to go on. 

She doesn’t want to. She never wanted to have to explain, she wanted him to just get it. But that’s not really fair. She shuts her textbook. “I didn't know if I was in love with you then. And I didn't want to know, and just be the happy couple, I couldn’t do it, I needed a break.” 

“You needed Jonathan.” 

“No, and stop saying that. I don’t need either of you. I need you both.” 

“Can’t make up your mind, or what,” he says, sounding resigned. 

“My mind’s made up, Harrington,” she snaps. “And if you aren’t cool with that, tell me. Right now.” 

“Is Jonathan cool with it?” 

“Yeah.” He is surprisingly cool with it. Nancy wonders, in the back of her mind, if he didn’t agree because he was scared to lose all of her. “Are you more worried about making Jonathan mad?”

“I just don’t want to fuck up your life, Wheeler,” Steve says. “Not any more than I already did. I mean, Barb’s… she was my fault too.” 

Nancy pushes herself up and walks down the last few steps to hug him, and not just to hide how tears are pricking at her eyes. “You don’t,” she says. “You and him are the only thing making me feel sane, here.” 

“Okay.” He hugs back. “We’re a team.” 

“We’re a team,” Nancy agrees. And then, because she knows what he’s afraid of - besides inter-dimensional beings - she says, “And I’m not going anywhere.” 

He doesn’t answer, but he starts saying hi to her at school, and making tentative jokes with Jonathan. His way of saying he’s not going anywhere either. 

 

 

It’s Nancy’s idea they come to this party. Steve’s not ready to risk it again, the memory of his and Nancy’s relationship-ending fight still sharp in his mind. But Nancy’s convincing. “Come on,” she says. “I promise we won’t argue. Just some drinks, we’ll say hi to everybody and go home.” 

And Steve could never say no to Nancy Wheeler. He doesn’t know a single person who could. So they go together, and dance together and have a couple of drinks apiece. Jonathan comes too, after he’s finished with an odd job he’s been doing for Mr. Kinsey down the street. He’s ready to leave the moment he gets there, but he comes and lets himself be charmed by Nancy’s dancing. He even has a drink too. 

It’s only about midnight when the party starts breaking up. Steve hears a commotion outside, looks over everybody’s heads out the window. Looks like a fight, and unsurprisingly right in the middle of it is Billy. 

“He’s really shooting himself in the foot, here,” Nancy says, following Steve’s gaze. “You know girls are warning each other to stay away? There’s a note in the ladies room at school.” 

“Yeah, I heard Scotty talking shit about him,” Steve says. “He’ll talk shit about anybody, but. Not whoever’s on top.” 

Jonathan looks out the window. “He’s been picking fights. At lunch, outside.” He must know that because he still eats outside cuz everyone still thinks he’s a loser. Steve makes a note to do something about that. 

“Look,” Steve says after a second. “You guys get out of here, one of the neighbors has probably already called the cops.” 

“What about you?” Jonathan sounds really concerned. “If you go to jail, who’ll bail you out?” 

“I’m not going to jail, Hopper would let me off,” Steve says. “And if I did, I’d call you guys. It’s fine. I’m just gonna try and break up this fight before anybody gets here. Some of these guys still listen to me.” 

Nancy cranes her neck and stands on tip toes to get a better look. “Really, don’t go to any trouble,” she says. “It’s just Billy.” 

“Yeah,” Steve says. “But still.” 

Nancy gives him one of those grudging loving smiles. “Stay safe.”

“Don’t be stupid, Harrington,” Jonathan agrees. 

“Okay. Drive safe.” He gets a hug goodbye from both of them, and Steve wonders if they’ve talked about him, about what he likes. Because he really likes that. He’s almost smiling while he steps outside.

Billy’s managed to get into a fight with not one but three of the members of the wrestling team. Steve doesn’t waste any time wondering why. “Hey guys,” he says. “Police coming.” But anyone who will leave already has, so the four guys keep fighting and the crowd of watchers stay. 

“Come on,” Billy shouts at no one in particular, blood on his teeth, and Steve flashes back to the kitchen, that plate breaking over his head. “Don’t you have any balls? Bunch of redneck pussies.” That gets him tackled by one of them. Someone’s going to get seriously hurt. 

Steve starts with the guy he knows best. “Hey, hey,” He says. “Tony, back off.” He pulls Tony back, looks him in the eyes. “You’ve got a scholarship, dude. You don’t want to risk it for this shit.” 

“You mean this fucking _piece_ of shit,” Tony growls. 

“Lisa, get him out of here,” Steve says to one of the watchers. “You know I’m right.” Lisa comes and gets her arm around her boyfriend, and that’s one down. 

Billy’s on the ground with someone else now, so Steve takes on the other one. “Hey. Aaron. Come on, man. You’re drunk. Can you get him inside to sober up?” he says to a guy in the crowd, a burly one since Aaron’s a heavyweight.

“I’m sober enough to kick this guy’s ASS,” Aaron shouts directly in Steve’s ear. 

Steve takes a deep calming breath. “Jesus Christ. No you aren't, you can barely stand up. And look at your hand.” Aaron looks, and Steve pats his back. “Yeah, get some ice on that, buddy.” 

He’s in the middle of trying to talk the last guy out of kicking Billy’s ass when the cops show up, and Hopper’s not one of the officers there but the deputies know Steve too. He could get them out of this whole thing, except that Billy makes his triumphant comeback to the fist fight in full view of the officers. They handcuff him, sit him on the curb with the guy he was fighting and Steve thinks about leaving. 

He doesn’t do it. He just thinks about it. This is a lot of trouble to go to for someone who hurt Lucas and Max. But every time he glances at his car, he remembers Billy in his kitchen, in the kitchen light holding frozen corn on his head, and he loses his nerve. 

“Hey, Officer Calahan,” he begins. 

“Hey, Steve-o. How’s Ruthie?” 

“She’s alright, doing well. I think she got promoted a couple months back.Uh, is there any chance you could let Billy Hargrove go?” 

Calahan sucks a breath in between his teeth. “No can do, I’m afraid. Most of the kids are saying he’s the one who started the whole thing.” 

Steve steels himself for a second. “Yeah, I saw it. Wasn’t quite that cut and dry. Look, though, I told my parents I was staying over at his place, so if he gets arrested I’m gonna be in some hot water.” 

It’s a barely stitched-together argument. Calahan knows how often Steve’s parents are out of town, how little they care where he sleeps. But nobody wants to call anybody out on having shitty parents, so Steve gets away with it. “Just this once,” Calahan points at him. Steve promises. 

After Calahan releases the handcuffs, Steve offers Billy his hand to help him up and gets ignored. Billy struggles to his feet on his own, stumbles a few steps and stays up. "Come on," Steve says. "Let's go." Billy follows him silently. So that's good, at least. 

Billy's car is here but Steve doesn't waste time worrying about leaving it. No one will touch it, and Steve's already doing his good thing for the day. Or week, or maybe fucking year. This particular drunken asshole has to count for more than any other. 

Being willing to drive him home is one thing. Being next to him in the enclosed space of the car is another. Steve has to take a second to breathe, doesn't close his eyes because if he does he'll be back in the Byers' kitchen, getting the shit beat out of him. He's not a fighter. He doesn't want to be. 

"I'm bleeding on your seat," Billy says thickly.

"Then we're even," Steve answers. "If I start driving, are you gonna throw up?" 

"No." 

"Okay." So he turns the car on, and starts to drive.

Billy puts his feet up on the dash, and Steve has to physically clench his teeth to keep from telling him off. It's what he wants, and Steve doesn't care particularly about his car. He doesn't even care about Billy, really.

"Any idea what you were thinking, back there?" Steve says, eyes on the road. 

"Thinking I could kick their asses." 

"Looks like it was the other way around." 

Billy kind of shrugs, wipes his dripping nose on his hand. His hand's bloody too, so there's not much of a net affect. 

"You think your parents are awake?" Steve asks next. 

"The fuck do you care." 

"Because I want to know what I'm walking into." 

Billy shrugs. "Maybe." 

"Maybe," Steve repeats. "Thanks." 

"I don't know, Harrington. If Max is home, probably not." He gives Steve a sidelong glance. "You know where she is?" 

"For once, no. Not a lot of places for her to go, thought, arcade is closed." 

Billy kind of sighs, wipes his nose again. "I hate this fucking hick town." 

"Why'd you come here, then." 

"Wasn't up to me." He sniffs deeply, winces. "Fuck." 

"Right, but. Can't really imagine Hawkins is a destination for anybody, and neither of your folks are from here." 

Billy rakes his hand through his hair, smearing it with blood. "None of your fucking business." 

Steve’s vision goes white at the edges. ”Cool, yeah. What did you you do? More of this violent bullshit? You have a criminal history? Kill somebody or something?" Billy lifts his arm and Steve snaps, "I swear to God if you touch me I'm getting you arrested." 

"Oh, you can't fight your own battles?" 

He's got no fucking idea. Steve sees a shadow pass on the road ahead, just out of range of his headlights. It's probably a deer, but he sees a demogorgon, slams on the brakes. "Jesus," Billy yells, and they skid to a stop. Both of them are breathing hard, looking out at the darkness.

There aren't any more demogorgons. El killed them all with her fucking amazing scary psychic powers. But knowing that doesn't make this any less frightening. 

"You scared, Harrington?" Billy eventually asks. 

"Get out," Steve says. "You can walk." 

Billy looks at him in something like disbelief, but he must believe Steve's resolve because he says, "It was a joke." 

"This whole fucking thing is a joke," Steve says, every muscle in his body tight. "And I'm done. Get out." 

He doesn't. He cracks his knuckles and stays in that seat. "I didn't hurt anybody," he finally says. "They wanted to move somewhere out of the city, away from..." He doesn't finish. 

"Knock somebody up?" Steve says bitingly. 

"No." Billy's getting snappish again. 

"Then what the fuck is it?" 

"I thought I saw the future," Billy mutters. "Had a bad trip, or something. I dunno, it was... whatever. Happened, they decided I was the fucking problem and the reason they're miserable, and we moved. Will you take me home or not?" 

Steve takes a deep breath, looks around in all directions to reassure himself that this is the right-side up world. Then he starts the car. 

“What’d the future look like?” he asks, putting the car into gear. 

“No sun. Snow everywhere but it wasn’t cold. Looked a lot like nuclear apocalypse,” Billy adds under his breath, then says louder. “But that wasn’t real.” 

“Fuckin’ hope not.” 

“If you try and tell anyone I’m crazy or something,” Billy says after a long silence, and the menace is still there but it’s softer than usual. 

“Believe it or not, I don’t really care about ruining your reputation,” Steve answers, resting his elbow on the window and his head on his hand. “I just kind of saved your ass, so.” 

“I had it handled.” 

“Yeah, but you kick their asses, you get them kicked out of college and in deep shit with their parents and you can kiss your ass goodbye. Everybody here knows each other, dude. And they don’t like new kids beating up their friends.” 

Billy doesn’t respond to that directly. He’s quiet for the rest of the drive, right until they’re on his street. “Hey,” he says then. “Stop the car.” 

“Three houses down?” Steve stops and turns off the lights. “No lights on inside,” he says. 

“Dad waits in the dark, sometimes.” Billy leans back for a second, shuts his eyes. 

Steve watches him. “You gonna go inside?” he eventually asks. 

“Cool your jets, Harrington, I’ll go when I’m fucking ready.” He pulls a battered pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket and lights one. Steve watches the flash of flame from the lighter, the glowing orange end. He catches the whites of Billy’s eyes in the dim light; Billy’s looking back. “You got somewhere to be?” 

“Why?” 

“Because you could kick me out of your car, asshole, that’s why.” 

Steve sees through that in a second. Billy is being considerate. A tiny drop in the bucket compared to all of his incredibly shitty behavior, but it’s a step of some kind. So Steve says, “I can sit here for a couple minutes.”

“What _did_ you tell your parents tonight,” Billy asks after a second, looking out his window. “Like you said to the cop.” 

“Nothing, they’re not home.” They wouldn’t care, even if they were. As long as Steve doesn’t get in their way. Steve picks at dry skin on his lip and watches the darkness for movement. 

“You even have parents?” Billy scoffs. 

“Jury’s still out.” 

They share a kind of shitty chuckle, a second of camaraderie. “Wish I had that problem, man,” Billy says. 

Steve doesn’t tell him just how little he knows what he’s talking about. He inhales the smoke and tries to feel calm. 

When Billy finishes his smoke, he doesn’t leave right away. “You think they’re awake?” Steve asks, trying to read him. 

“I’ll find out.” He has to work himself up to getting out, and Steve wonders if all the times he’s seen him bloodied aren’t from fights like this. Or not only from them. 

Steve finally has to say something. “Look,” he starts.

“Shut the hell up,” Billy sighs, and opens his door. “See you around,” he says before leaving, and that’s not thanks. It’s something, though. 

 

 

It's Steve's idea to use his babysitting cash to pay for them all to go see a movie. The new Nightmare on Elm Street wins by two votes. Nancy goes because she thinks everyone’s going, but then Jonathan says he's staying home in no uncertain terms and will not be moved. So Nancy's going to see a scary movie with Steve and all her little brother's friends. Still a totally normal friend thing to do. 

Then they actually get there, and all the kids want to sit away from the two of them. So then it turns into Nancy sitting in a dark theater next to her ex-boyfriend, and that's a little less normal. 

Billy Hargrove comes in with Darcy Montgomery, right as the previews are starting, and Steve sighs. "Nance, I'm gonna have to ask you right now to promise you won't punch him after the movie.”

"If he leaves the kids alone," Nancy retorts. 

"I thought Darcy had standards," Steve says. "And Sean Masterson told me Billy's practically radioactive now." 

"Not the first time a girl has done something stupid for a cute guy," Nancy answers. But they have to stop arguing, because they get shushed by the grown up couple in front of them. 

Nancy has no particular opinions on scary movies. It's just the whole demonic possession storyline and the monster lurking in the darkness is all a little too close to home. Steve sinks lower and lower in his seat, and Nancy thinks about holding his hand. 

Then the coach is killed, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out who did it, or why Will gets out of his seat and books it for the exit. Steve's on his feet the second he sees Will, and Nancy follows him out into the lobby. 

"Hey, Will," Steve calls, and Will is so relieved to turn around and see them. "That was pretty intense." 

"Yeah," Will agrees.

"You wanna sit the rest of this out?" 

"Yeah," Will repeats. He gives Nancy a tight smile, very fake, and lets out a very deep breath. They all go sit on one of the benches together, Steve and Nancy on either side of the kid. 

"Sorry, I didn't know it'd be like this," Steve finally says. Nancy looks over at him; he's got his eyes on the carpet. 

"It's okay," Will says. 

"It was pretty scary, though," Steve says. "I mean, the dreams kind of... they were  like that Upside Down place." 

"I killed people," Will says in a tiny voice. "Just like him." 

Both of the older kids look over him at each other sharply. "No you didn't," Nancy says.

"I lured them there, and he killed them." 

"None of that was you.” Steve puts his arm over Will's shoulders, and Will hugs him from the side. 

"But what if it was, though," he says. Neither of them have a good answer. 

They get a pretty good distraction, though, when Billy Hargrove comes out of the theater at something close to a run. Nancy wonders for a second if he managed to get in a fight in a movie theater before she sees her brother and El right behind him. Billy isn't paying any attention to any of them, and Nancy doesn't care to notice anything else because Mike is coming straight at her and there's something in his face that alarms her. 

Nancy stands just in time, and Mike slams into her for a tight, desperate hug. She hugs back, tamping down the worry blossoming in her chest. "Hey," she says. "Everything okay?" 

"El didn't want to keep watching," he says into her shoulder. "She got scared." 

Eleven rolls her eyes. She's clearly fine. "Yes," she says anyways. 

Steve hits Nancy's arm a couple time with the back of his hand. "Hey," he says. "Why's Billy having the same reaction we are?"he asks in a low voice. 

Nancy looks over Mike's shoulder at Billy, who's by the door smoking. He looks unsteady even for him.

“Steve Harrington, you are not going to try and convince me that Billy was in the Upside Down," Nancy whispers. 

Mike lets go but stays close. "Max didn't know about it," he says. "She didn't believe Lucas when he told her."

“That doesn’t prove shit. If you think I would've told any of you if you didn't already know, you're out of your mind," Steve answers. "And the other night, when I took him back from Scotty's. He was talking about some kind of like... vision. About the sky being black with no sun, and the end of the world and some shit." Steve pinches the bridge of his nose with his free hand. "He said there was some kinda snow." 

Will and Eleven both tense. "The Upside Down," El says solemnly. 

"Do you think?" Steve's arm is still around Will; he ruffles Will's hair. "What are your spidey sense telling you?" he asks. 

"I don't know. I'm not connected to that place anymore." Will's voice shakes. 

"I know, I know. But you've been there. Gut instinct." 

Will looks at Billy for a long moment. So does Mike and El, turning to evaluate the guy across the lobby. Billy doesn't even notice them. Then Will and Mike look at each other. "He left when we did," Mike says.

"I think he knows," Will says.

"Does anybody know why they moved?" Nancy says. "They came two months into the school year, that's not normal." 

"Wait," El says. "Why are we telling him? He's a bad man." 

Nancy looks at Steve, then at her brother who's sharing a look with Will. "It's been bothering him," Steve says. "He should know. And it's not like he can do anything with it."

"He could tell someone," Mike says doubtfully. 

"Anyone who would believe him around here already knows," Steve says. "Even his parents don't believe him." 

"And this is bigger than that," Nancy says. "If there's another door into the Upside Down, we need to find it and close it." 

That silences everyone. 

"Yeah," Steve says. "I'm gonna go talk to him." 

"No," Nancy says. "You're gonna stay here with the kids." Because if anyone is going to get punched in the face, it won't be him again. It won’t be anybody, but Nancy isn't especially interested in letting anyone get multiple concussions. Even if they are her ex-boyfriend.

Steve bites his lip. "Nance." 

"El, will you come with me?" Nancy says, deliberately ignoring him. Eleven nods. "Don't attack him. Unless he attacks first," Nancy adds, and the two of them cross the lobby. 

Billy eyes them suspiciously as they get close. "Is there a problem, Wheeler?" he says, dropping his cigarette butt and crushing it under his heel. He finished that fast. 

"I need you to promise me thirty seconds where you don't say anything. Okay?" Nancy barely waits for him to nod. “Good. Steve told me about the stuff you said you saw, that looked like the end of the world." 

"I'm gonna fucking kill him.” Billy steps forward. 

Nancy stops him with her hand in the middle of his chest. "You promised to listen." 

She watches him grit his teeth, but he nods very slightly for her to continue. “I know what you saw. You aren’t crazy. We’ve seen it too, and we know a little bit about what’s really going on. But you need to go back in, and sit through the movie, and make the nicest excuses you’ve ever made to Darcy Montgomery at the end of it, because if you make her mad, you make her father mad. And then your father will hear about it.” 

“So?” he says rebelliously. 

“Your father is a bad man,” El answers in her flattest tone. “You know that. Are you going to take our help or not?” 

“What kind of kid are you?” Billy demands, but he doesn’t raise his hands to either of them. Like Nancy suspected, he’s not as quick to hit girls. Even though that’s monumentally dumb.

“A fighter,” El answers, and Nancy puts a hand on her shoulder to make sure that isn’t literal in the moment. 

“Are you going to listen or not,” Nancy says. 

Billy chews on his lower lip while he thinks about it, looking over Nancy probably at the rest of the gang. “You all saw it?” 

“Yes.” 

“And after the movie, you’re gonna tell me about it?” 

“Yep.” 

“If you’re lying to me, Wheeler, I swear to God.” 

“I’m not, Hargrove," Nancy snaps back. “And you can fuck right off if all you’re going to do is insult me. I don’t have to tell you shit.” 

Billy seethes a little, mad and scared and impressed all at once. “What do I tell Darcy?” he says, half to himself. 

Nancy shrugs. “You’ll think of something.” And with that, she turns around and leads Eleven back to their little group.

“What the hell just happened,” Steve says. 

Mike crowds against Nancy’s side for a one-armed hug. “What’d he say?” he asks. 

“He’s coming with us after the movie to talk,” Nancy says. 

“Max won’t like that,” Steve says. 

“He’s not gonna want to talk to Max anyways,” Nancy says. “We should split up.” 

“I’m coming with you and Billy,” Steve says firmly. 

“I’ll come,” Will volunteers. “I know the most about the Upside Down.” 

He does, though Nancy’s not thrilled about it. Neither is Steve, but he just hugs him tighter . “You’re right.” 

“I should come,” Eleven says. “In case he tries to fight.” 

“Then I’m coming too,” Mike says immediately. 

“Too many,” Steve shakes his head. “The other kids will get suspicious.” 

“They won’t know. Nancy can leave with me and El and Will, Steve can take the other kids home, and then we all meet Billy somewhere.” Mike looks around at all of them in the silence. “That’ll work, right?” 

“Yeah,” Nancy answers when Steve doesn’t. “Where should we meet?” 

Steve shakes his head. “My parents are home for the weekend. No go.” 

Nancy’s parents are home too. Hopper’s not letting any random kid in his place, and they’re kind of out of options until Will says, “Mom works today. Jonathan’s babysitting.” 

Billy and Jonathan is not a good combination, but Nancy thinks she can count on curiosity beating bloodlust just this once. “Okay,” she says. “Steve, bring your bat.” 

Steve nods. “Well. This is gonna be an interesting afternoon.”

 

 

He doesn’t know what exactly he’ll find, walking into the Byers’ house. Takes a second on the porch to steel himself, but all he sees when he goes inside are the usual suspects. 

“Billy’s driving Darcy home,” Nancy says from the couch. “He’ll be here soon.” 

Jonathan’s next to her, Will squeezed between them. Both brothers hunched and stressed. “This was a bad idea,” Jonathan says.

“It was your idea to be his friend,” Steve says indignantly. 

“Yeah, but not in my house.” 

Nancy seems apologetic. “He’s onboard, but not totally.”

“I’ll let you do the talking,” Jonathan says. “If he touches Will, I’m calling the cops.” 

“Deal.” 

“Eleven won’t let that happen,” Will says. 

She won’t, that’s true. And Mike would probably protect Will with his own life. All these kids are so damn self sacrificing. 

“Any idea how we’re gonna do this?” Steve says, a sort of general question to the room, and plops down on the couch next to Jonathan.

“El’s been working on some new skills,” Mike says. He’s pacing. “I think she can help.”

“I’ve got pictures of the vines Will drew,” Jonathan says. “From the police. That will help explain this year.” 

Steve wishes they had the demogorgon Dustin tried to save, but Hopper insisted on burning it. No physical proof. 

Billy knocks on the door then, and Nancy answers it. Steve watches her intimidate the guy with just her stare, and he thinks about how lucky he is to have her on his side. “Not the Harrington mansion today?” Billy says as he walks in. 

“Watch it, shithead,” Steve says. “You’re here to listen.” 

Billy spares him a glance at that, and stands sort of next to him. “Only cuz you couldn’t keep your fucking mouth shut.” 

“If I kept my fucking mouth shut, you would still be thinking it was the weed you smoked or some shit,” Steve says. “Also don’t swear. There’s kids here.” 

“You owe us fifty cents,” Mike says with his arms crossed. 

“Who the fuck are you?” Billy says, exasperated. 

“Mike. Nancy’s brother. And now it’s a dollar.” Mike steps away from Billy, nose wrinkled in disgust. “Eleven, are you ready to go?” 

“Yes,” Eleven answers. “Will?” 

“I’m ready,” Will nods. He gets up off the couch, and sits in front of the TV. El’s using a bandana from Jonathan’s room to blindfold herself. She ties it on now, and sits cross-legged facing Will, holding his hands. 

“What are we doing, a fucking seance?” Billy says. 

“Dollar fifty,” Mike says darkly. 

Nancy laughs, and motions her brother over on the couch, taking Will’s spot. “Shut up, Billy,” she says. “Just watch.” 

El’s been practicing. The TV buzzes to life easily, and then Will’s memories start to play on it. The Upside Down, the pollen and vines and fire. What he saw while trick or treating, at school, at home in his bathroom. Next to Steve, Jonathan tenses. Steve pats his leg a couple times. Will’s safe now. 

“Past memory or now memory?” El says. 

“Past,” Will whispers, and his hands on El are white. “Keep going.” 

So they see demogorgons, tearing at walls and ceilings and trees, and then one up close, its face opening like a hideous flower. Steve feels faint. If they looked in his brain, they’d see one screaming, ear-splitting and huge. 

And then they see the nameless big thing that came for Will a month ago. Legs like a spider but some kind of face that’s unseeable and still fills everyone with terror. Billy’s the one who gives in. “What the fuck,” he says. He’s white as a sheet. “How the hell are you doing this?” 

“Is this what you saw?” Steve asks. 

“Yeah. How the fuck are we seeing it now?” 

“Will’s memories,” Jonathan answers. “El’s putting them on the screen.” 

“How the fuck is she doing that?” 

“Her dad experimented on her, gave her powers, whatever,” Mike mutters. 

Billy is continuously annoyed and perplexed by Mike, and Steve’s enjoying that. “So the kid saw it too,” he says. 

“He was there for almost a month,” Jonathan says. “He lived it.” 

“We’ve been there,” Nancy says. “Me and Jonathan.” 

“And if we’re counting the tunnels, me too,” Steve says. 

Billy puts a hand through his hair. “What fucking tunnels.” 

So Jonathan takes out the polaroids of Will’s drawings and explains how they ran under all of Hawkins, and Nancy explains the demogorgon they faced. Eleven shows them how she killed the demogorgon and closed the portal, and they ask Will to talk about the other creature. He has conditions, though. “I want to know what you saw,” he says to Billy. 

They’ve all traded spots. Steve’s pacing, and Mike is too. Everyone else is on the couch, except for Billy who’s standing, wound tighter with every minute. Now he’s on the spot, and he doesn’t like it. “A lot like that,” he says. “Except by the beach.” 

“Were there demogorgons?” 

Billy twitches his shoulders in a shrug, looks away. “I never saw anything alive. So this isn’t a… a vision or whatever.”

“No,” Steve says. “It’s a place.” 

“A shadow dimension,” Mike chimes in. “A dark, twisted version of our world, accessible through portals that connect the two. Like the one Eleven closed. How did you get there?” 

Billy shrugs. “Don't remember.”

“Was there a door?” Eleven asks. 

“No, just kind of blinked and it was there.” 

Nancy looks at Steve, and he throws his hands up in disbelief. “I have no fucking idea,” he says. “No idea.” 

“If he’s got True Sight, he might have a piece of the other side in him,” Mike says. “Will did.” 

“Whoa, whoa, hold on,” Billy says. “Nothing’s inside me.” 

“Have you seen the Upside Down since you moved here?” Steve says. 

Billy shakes his head. 

“How the hell do we get to California to close a maybe portal if he can’t even remember where it was?” Nancy demands of the room in general. 

“Hitchhike,” El says. “Find a nice man.” 

“That’s a no,” Steve says immediately, before she can get fixated on that. “No one’s hitchhiking. Even Eleven.” 

“A _nice_ man,” she repeats obstinately. 

“Still a no, kiddo.” Steve runs a hand through his hair. “Do your powers have anything to do with, like. The other side itself? Can you just tell us if there’s a portal?” 

“No,” Eleven says. “Just find people.” 

“Great. So we got nothing out of this,” Nancy says. She looks over at Billy. “Any questions? While we’re talking about it.” 

“Her name’s Eleven?” 

“Pass,” Steve answers for the room. 

“What do you mean pass, you can’t pass.” 

“I did, get over it. Next.” Steve sees Mike smiling at that, and Nancy. Even Jonathan a little. 

Billy doesn’t like being teased, but he just glares. “Can you people get back there?” 

“No.” Apparently Steve is in charge of answering questions. “As far as we know, it’s closed.” 

“Who else knows?” 

“Max,” Mike says, and Nancy shoves his shoulder. 

“Lucas and Dustin,” Steve adds. “And Ms. Byers. And Hopper.” And a bunch of scientist dudes, and at least a small part of the government. But they’ve been keeping conspiracy out of it. 

It’s all overwhelming. Like, really overwhelming. “I need a fucking smoke,” Billy says, and heads outside. 

“He should just buy us dinner,” Mike says. “He’s gonna owe us that much anyways.” 

“I’ll pass that offer along,” Steve sighs. He’s been sighing a lot recently. Everything is simultaneously tiring and terrifying. 

Nancy pulls him and Jonathan into the kitchen for a huddle. “He’s being weird,” she says. 

“He was just told there’s a shadow dimension,” Jonathan points out dryly. 

“Yeah, but.” Nancy doesn’t know what she’s trying to say. She looks at Steve. “You know him best.” 

“Gross.” He makes a face. 

“Find out what he’s going to do.” 

“He’s not gonna do anything,” Jonathan says. “He barely believes us. We did the right thing, now we’re done.” 

They’re done, but Steve still goes outside anyways. Just to check. Billy’s out on the porch, leaning against the wall and smoking. He must be on at least his second, staying outside even though it’s cold. “Hey,” Steve says. 

“You can tell your little fuckin’ club their secret is safe,” Billy says without looking at him. “If that’s what you want.” 

“It’s not my club,” Steve says. “I’m kind of a recent addition.” 

“Whatever.” Billy takes a puff. “You can’t tell Max.” 

“Why can’t I?” 

He expects some kind of threat, but Billy just says, “Because. I’m not supposed to talk about this shit.” 

Steve nods. “Okay. And you tell us if you see anything again. Or remember anything.” 

“Yep.” Billy looks over at him. “We done, here?” 

“Yeah, we can be.” 

“The fuck do you mean by that.” 

“I mean your hands are still shaking,” Steve points out, and stuffs his hands deeper in his pockets. His are too. “You can stick around. I took Max home, so.” 

Billy levels an unimpressed look at him. “You don’t want me here.”

True. Steve doesn’t try to lie. But that ends up as him just not saying anything, standing there watching Billy smoke. 

“The girl,” Billy says. “Her name’s Eleven?” 

Steve bites his lip, remembering the extremely firm lecture Hopper gave everybody about not letting anyone know El’s past. “Yep,” Steve says. 

“So there’s ten more of her?” 

“Probably. We aren’t really sure.” 

Billy finishes the second cigarette, crushes the butt under the heel of his boot. “Don’t try and talk about any of this shit with me,” he says. “We’re not friends.”

“Sure. Then you’re on your own next time you’re in handcuffs,” Steve says mildly, and moves like he’s gonna go back inside. 

“Sounds like you think you’re better than me.” 

“I do,” Steve agrees plainly. “I’ve never tried to beat up a kid.”

Tension’s growing between them, hot and fierce. But it dissipates. “Fuck you,” Billy says. “I owe you a favor, okay?” 

“Okay.”

Without smoking, this has turned into just the two of them standing together, looking at the woods around them. That gets awkward pretty fast. “Have fun with your freak club,” Billy mutters, and walks towards his car. It’s a great car, honestly, Steve would be jealous of anyone else. But it’s Billy, so he just goes back inside. 

“He left,” he tells everybody inside. 

“Good,” Mike says. “He owes us like five bucks, though.” 

“Don’t count on that ever being paid,” Nancy says. “C’mon, Mom’s expecting us. And you’ve got homework.” 

“Ugh,” Mike rolls his eyes. “Okay. Can we take El home?” 

“Sure.” Nancy hugs everyone goodbye, even the kids, and tells Jonathan, “I’ll call you later tonight.” 

“Okay.” 

Steve feels like he should leave too, once Nancy’s gone. “Hey,” he says. “I don’t think he will, but if Billy comes over here just gimme a call. I can help you out.” 

“Okay,” Jonathan nods. “Thanks.” 

“I mean, not like you can’t take care of it yourself,” Steve adds quickly.

“I know.” Jonathan smiles. “But it’s nice to have backup.” 

Steve smiles back. “Okay. Thanks for letting us use the house.” 

“No problem.”

Steve leaves then, cuz as much as he understands Jonathan now the awkwardness can get kind of unbearable. 

He’s got homework too, shit he’s been neglecting because nothing really feels as important as the Upside Down. He goes home, where his dad is reading in his study and his mom is napping, and does his homework.

He misses dinner, and doesn’t realize it until a little after eleven. Half of him is kind of miffed nobody called him. But Mom probably didn’t eat either, and Dad doesn’t cook for anybody but himself. So Steve goes downstairs to make something, eggs or toast or whatever. He’s not thinking about anything, especially not calling Nancy to try and fill some of the emptiness in his chest. He’s just making eggs. 

A sound startles him, a thump on the sliding glass door that’s probably just a bird hitting it. When he turns to look, though, it’s a figure. _Zombie_ _Barb_ , he thinks, slightly hysterical, and then he realizes it’s Billy. And he’s getting the glass dirty. 

Steve comes over to the door with a dishtowel, and resolutely does not look at Billy while he’s fumbling with the lock and opening the door. “What,” he whispers. “Why are you here.” 

“Lemme in.” Billy smells like blood, and like a bottle of bourbon. 

“My folks are here,” Steve says, kind of a protest, but he opens the door wider so he can step out and wipe off the blood on the glass. And when Billy slips past him inside, he doesn’t stop him. “Take your shoes off,” he says. “Leave them out here.” 

Billy gives him a deeply annoyed look, but he obeys. And when the glass is clean, Steve follows him inside, takes him into the kitchen because hard surfaces are easier to clean than carpet. And somehow, he thinks Billy’s gonna need cleaning up after. Again. 

“Where’s Max,” Billy says. 

Steve looks him dead in the eyes and says, “You’ve got one shot, dude. Be quiet. Don’t wake my dad up. Or you’re out of here.” 

“Where is she,” Billy repeats doggedly, but much quieter. 

“I took her home after the movie. Is she not home?” 

“Yeah she’s not home, I only got that screamed my face fifty fucking times.” Billy opens Steve’s freezer himself, takes frozen peas and holds the bag over his rapidly swelling right eye. “I have to find her.” 

“You gonna go beat the shit out of whoever she’s with?” 

“Well I think I should get to beat the shit out of somebody,” Billy replies evenly. 

“And you pick kids why, cuz they don’t fight back?” 

“Max fights back,” Billy mutters. 

Steve steps back from him, deliberately unclenches his fists and looks anywhere else but at Billy. “Then maybe you shouldn’t _hit her_ ,” he whispers so he doesn’t yell, and he starts eating. He really is hungry, even though Billy’s making his stomach turn. 

“She’s fine,” Billy says after a moment. “I haven’t touched her since she almost took my nuts off with your bat. Remember that?” 

“If we keep talking about it, I’m kicking you out,” Steve says without looking up. 

“Touchy,” Billy says, and then falls silent for almost a minute. Not quite long enough. “Everybody hits their kids,” he finally mumbles. 

“No they don’t.” Not that some things aren’t just as bad. Not like Steve’s just letting Billy stay here so he doesn’t have to face the emptiness of the house even with his parents in it. 

That silences Billy for a few more seconds. He moves the peas around on his face and clears his throat. “Any idea where she’s at?” he says grudgingly. 

“No,” Steve says. “And I’m not really that inclined to help, when all you’ve got is lame-ass excuses.” 

Billy worries at the split in his lip with his teeth. “I said I won’t hit her,” he says, even though he definitely hasn’t. “Look, can you just call some of your nerd kids and ask if she’s at their house? I don’t even know where they live.” 

“They’re not my kids,” Steve mumbles. But he picks up the phone anyways, and he calls Mrs. Henderson. “Hey, it’s Steve,” he says when she picks up. 

“Oh Steve, how are you?” 

“Just fine, ma’am, thank you. Is Max still over there, by any chance?” he asks, a wild guess. 

“No, I think they’re all over at the Byers’ now,” Mrs. Henderson says. 

“That’s right. Thank you, I forgot what the plan was. Bye.” Steve hangs up and as he’s dialing the next number, he pushes Billy towards the bathroom. Thank God for cordless phones. 

“What the fuck,” Billy says, allowing himself to be pushed. 

“First aid shit under the sink,” Steve says, and then Mrs. Wheeler picks up. “Hey, Mrs. Wheeler. I’m sorry it’s so late - is Nancy up?” 

She is. Mrs. Wheeler lets her on the phone. “Nance, where’s Mike?” 

“In bed.” 

“Are you absolutely, one hundred percent sure?” 

“Yeah,” Nancy says slowly. “Well. Let me check.” 

In the silence, Steve looks back at Billy, who’s clumsily soaking blood from his knuckles with gauze. “Hydrogen peroxide,” Steve says. “So you don’t get an infection.” 

“I know.” He sounds annoyed. “What’s going on?” 

“I don’t know yet.” 

Nancy’s back. “Yeah, he’s asleep with his walkie talkie, so he was probably talking to El before bed. Why?” 

“Dustin, Lucas, and Max told Dustin’s mom they’re going to Will’s.” 

“Joyce wouldn’t let them stay this late.” Steve can hear her frown. 

“Yeah, I know. I’m calling Hopper next, I just wanted to know if Mike was with them.” 

“Nope. I’d almost feel better if he was,” Nancy says. “Cuz El’s probably not either.” 

“I know.” Mike’s the voice of reason too often in the group, and El’s the muscle. “I’ll talk to you later.” 

“Okay. Good luck.” 

“Thanks.” Steve hangs up and dials Hopper next, his home phone that only eleven people know about. 

Billy’s watching him in the mirror. “You think they’re in trouble?” he says. He takes off his jacket and Steve sees a long cut on his arm, a couple of them. Steve hears a plate breaking in his head. On his head. 

“Maybe. I don’t know.” 

Hopper picks up. “What’s wrong?” 

“Hey, Hopper, it’s Steve. El’s home, right?” 

“Asleep in front of the TV. You know what time it is?” 

“Yeah, I’m aware,” Steve says dryly. Billy’s rinsing his blood down the drain, the sink’s red and pink and white and Steve almost yawns. 

“Is there trouble?” 

“Not yet. I’ll tell you if there is. Thanks.” 

“Sure. Be safe, kid.” 

Steve smiles. “Thanks. I will.” 

“I’m your first call.” 

“You’re my first call,” Steve repeats back. “G’night.” 

“Night.” 

“Hopper doesn’t know where they are,” Steve says once he’s hung up. He has to concentrate dialing the Byers - he doesn’t know that number as well as everybody else. 

“Goddamn kids,” Billy mumbles absently, but he’s focused inspecting his arm. “Max is gonna be in deep shit.” 

“From your parents,” Steve says. 

“Yeah.” Billy looks at him like he’s stupid. “Even her bitch of a mother-“ Steve aims a kick at Billy’s leg and makes contact without dropping the phone. Billy gives him a murderous look, but keeps talking. “-won’t be able to make this my fault. And fuck off, you don’t know her.” 

That’s a fact Steve gets to avoid agreeing to, because Mrs. Byers picks up. “Hello?” she says, voice shaking. Phone calls at their house mean something different entirely

“Hi, it’s me. It’s Steve. Sorry for calling so late.”

“Oh, it’s alright. Is something wrong?” 

“Kind of. There aren’t any of the kids over here, are there?” 

“Nope, just mine. Why?” 

Steve lets out a deep breath. He has to acknowledge an uncomfortable fact then, and the fact is that the three kids lied, they’re somewhere unknown, and it’s approaching midnight. “Lucas, Dustin, and Max are missing,” he says out loud, and it makes him cold inside. 

“When did you last see them?” Joyce says, immediately prepared. 

“Uh, after the movie this afternoon, around three? Mrs. Henderson spoke to them after that, I think, she said they were at your house.” 

“Any idea where they actually are?” 

“No.” 

“Did you call Hopper?” 

“Yeah, he said El’s asleep.” 

“Damn. She could help us find them.” 

“I know. You think he’d be cool with waking her up?” 

“Probably not.” Joyce sounds thoughtful.

Steve’s watching Billy, watching him uncover more injuries and take care of them and trying not think about that too close. “Dustin’s not a good liar,” he says. “If he said he was coming to your house, he might be near it.” 

“Will’s castle in the woods,” Joyce suggests. “Or the train tracks, they hang out there.” 

“Is it cool if we come over?” 

“Sure. Jonathan’s light is still on, I think he’s still up.” 

“Thanks so much.” 

“Of course, dear. Do their parents know?” 

“Not yet,” Steve says. “On our way.” 

“Okay. See you soon.” 

He hangs up again, and looks at Billy. His eye is puffy, looks painful. “We’re heading over there,” Steve says. “You coming?” 

“I’m driving.” 

Steve nods, can’t resist a question. “Your dad did all this cuz Max was missing?” he asks, motioning at Billy’s general state of being. 

Billy’s response is a withering look. “You’re gonna want a coat.” 

Getting in Billy’s Camero with him is a whole new set of fears. “Come on,” Billy says when Steve’s hesitated for too long. “I’m not gonna fuckin’ bite.”

No, he’ll just break noses. Or orbital bones, or whatever. Steve gets in, though, because his bat is in his hand, and his backpack is filled with other goodies. Nothing’s getting the jump on him tonight. 

“You know the way?” Steve asks. 

“Yeah, pretty sure I do,” Billy says. “Managed to get there and kick your ass.” 

Steve grits his teeth, doesn’t reply. This was a bad idea.

“You really think they’re over there?” Billy says. 

“I don’t know. It’s a shot.” It’s the only shot right now. And Steve hates it. He was counting on at least a year before this stomach twisting worry came back.

Joyce is on the front porch, arms crossed, when they pull up. She looks very small, but she gives Steve the fiercest hug. “Hi, honey,” she says, and looks at Billy with poorly-disguised confusion. “Who’s this?” 

“Billy, Max’s brother.” 

“Step-brother,” Billy corrects, lighting a cigarette. 

Joyce narrows her eyes, then holds out her hand. Billy looks from her to the cigarette in surprise, and Joyce scoffs. “Oh, come on. I’m a mom, I’m not a saint.” Billy hands it over, and Joyce takes a deep drag before handing it back. “Jesus. Missing kids.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Well. I have some help for you. Come on inside.” She turns around, and they follow. 

Jonathan is up, and pacing the kitchen. “Fuck,” he says when he sees Billy. “I thought Nance was with you.” 

Steve shakes his head. “You coming?” 

“Yeah, I know these woods better than either of you.” And he’s prepared. He’s got supplies laid out on the table, bats and a lantern and a flashlight. “Wish it was Nance,” he adds. “She has a gun.” 

“A gun?” Joyce repeats, and frowns. “You should take the shotgun.” And she hurries off down the hall to get it. 

Jonathan looks at Steve with a smile. “She’s fun now that she knows,” Steve says, smiling back. “You have a plan?” 

“Yeah, I do. Will’s castle. We’ll start there. Maybe they’re headed towards the lab.” 

“Lab,” Billy repeats. 

“Long story,” Steve says. “If we don’t find them in a couple hours, we’re calling Hopper and he’s waking up El. Agreed?” 

Jonathan nods. Billy just kind of shrugs. He’s got no idea what’s happening here. “At least Will’s at home,” Jonathan says. 

“That’s why I think it’s not the Upside Down,” Steve says. “It’s never come for them before.” 

“It got Barb,” Jonathan says. 

“Barb?” Billy says. 

“But it killed her,” Steve shakes his head. “It didn’t kill Will, it planted that thing in him.” 

“Maybe it tried that too,” Jonathan says. “But Barb couldn’t handle it.” 

“What do she and Will have in common?”

“They’re smart,” Jonathan suggests after a second. 

Joyce is back then, with the shotgun and a couple rounds. “Don’t fire unless you’re sure,” she says. “Promise me.” 

“Of course, I promise,” Jonathan says, and Steve bobs his head in agreement. Billy will not be touching the gun and seems to know that. “We’ll be back in two hours. If we’re not back, call Hopper.” 

“Okay. Be safe, honey.” Joyce hugs her son, and then Steve. “No smoking inside,” she tells Billy, and heads back to her bedroom. 

Steve packs his backpack with supplies as Jonathan does too, and says, “We’re gonna find them, though.” 

“Totally,” Jonathan nods. Neither of them know if they believe it, though. 

Another nighttime trek through these Goddamn woods. “This way,” Jonathan says. 

“If they’ve been fucking eaten, I’m gonna kill them,” Steve says under his breath. “Fuck. Fuck.” 

“It’s not your fault,” Jonathan says. “You can’t be with all three of them at once. And you’re not responsible for them.” 

“I know.” But Billy is Max’s brother, and she’s still missing. And Dustin and Lucas don’t have brothers to look after them. “Fuck,” Steve says again. “What the fuck were they thinking.” 

Neither of the other two answer him. It’s a tense walk. 

They get to the little fort after five minutes or so. It’s close, but looks far away. It’s tied together firmly, holding up well, and Steve’s chest aches for a second. Jonathan pulls aside the blanket door and looks inside - nothing. “Nope,” he says. 

“Hold on,” Billy speaks up for the first time in a while. He shines his flashlight on the ground and picks up a string, tied to one of the sticks of the fort. “This normal?” he asks. 

“Nope,” Jonathan says. “I bet I know who’s on the other end.” 

They’re only following the string for a couple minutes before they hear talking in the distance. Dustin’s voice, distinctive as ever, and Lucas and Max answering back. “We’re close,” Dustin’s saying. 

“Hey!” Steve calls. “Dustin!” 

Brief silence. “Steve?” Dustin yells back. 

“Christ,” Steve mutters, and takes off at a run towards the voices. And, as he gets closer, towards the light from the kids’ flashlights. Jonathan and Billy follow, and when he reaches the kids he just wheezes for a second. “God damn you,” he says. “Fuck.” 

“That’s fifty cents,” Lucas says. 

“Fine. But you owe me ten million Goddamn dollars for making me come find you at fucking midnight.” 

The kids don’t look too worried until Billy’s in view. Max in particular looks like her stomach has fallen out. She shrinks back, and hides behind Lucas. “Come on,” Steve says when nobody else talks. “We’re going back.” 

“But-“ Dustin begins. 

“But nothing. Your mom thinks you’re at Will’s, and if you’re out much longer she’ll call and that won’t go well. And Max, your parents are worried, they have no idea where you are.” 

The kids all look at Billy, who’s remaining silent even here. “Dad’s pissed,” he finally says, grinding the words out with obvious strain. 

“He’s not my dad,” Max snaps. 

“Well you still fucking live with him,” Billy answers. “We both do. Come on.” He reaches for her, and Max shrinks back as Steve knocks Billy’s arm away with his bat. Not hard, but. Stops him. And Billy looks at him, pissed and trying to pick his next move. 

“Come on,” Steve says before Billy decides. “We’re going. And they all listen, follow Jonathan back towards the Byers house. Max stomps ahead, with Lucas following close on her heels. Dustin is walking with Jonathan, and Steve hangs back to make sure nothing’s following them. Just in case. 

Billy falls back to walk with him pretty soon, and Steve tries not to seem too pissed. They were having a decent time before, but Billy is some type of garbage, incapable of being nice to his sister and that kind of ruins the whole night pretty thoroughly. 

Though, apparently, if his sister being missing gets Billy’s ass beaten, Steve supposes he can understand the resentment.

“Will you take everybody home?” Steve says him. 

“Yep.” 

That’s the extent of the conversation, on the way to the Byers’ house. Jonathan goes in then, and the rest of them get in Billy’s car. 

“Shotgun,” Dustin says, and no one argues.

They drop Lucas off first, then head for Dustin’s. In the back seat, Max whispers to Steve, “Why did you bring him?” 

“He came to me. And you were missing, I didn’t have much of a choice,” Steve says. Max curls up into Steve’s side, and he puts his arm around her. She’s shaking. Steve bites his lip, and he thinks. 

“Bye guys,” Dustin says brightly when they’re outside his house. 

“We will be discussing this,” Steve says. “You can’t do this shit, not after what happened last year.” 

Dustin’s face falls a bit. “Okay,” he says. “Well. See you later.” 

“Yeah,” Max echoes softly. “Bye.” And when Dustin is gone, she says to Steve, “Can’t I stay at your house?” 

“No,” Steve shakes his head. “That won’t work.” But he feels a little sick when he looks at her face, and when he sees Billy looking at them in the rearview mirror. 

Billy takes them to Steve’s last, keep the lights off so he doesn’t wake Steve’s parents. Steve doesn’t get out right away. He’s still thinking this over. 

“My sister’s room is empty,” he finally says. 

“We have to go home, Harrington,” Billy says gruffly. “It’ll be worse the longer it is.” 

Steve thinks about asking why Max is so scared, if her mom protects her. But he knows he doesn’t want the answer. “You can come over tomorrow,” he says instead. “If you want.” 

“Thanks,” Max says, deathly soft. “I’d like to, if I can.” 

“I’ll bring you,” Billy says after a second, very begrudging, and he lights up again. Steve can’t tell if that’s to appease him, or an actual nice offer. Seems like Max can’t tell either. 

“Okay,” she says. “Well. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Yep.” Steve hugs her, looks up at Billy, who’s looking at him in the mirror again. “Bye.” 

“Bye,” Billy says, mocking him for it somehow. 

Whatever. Steve gets out, and they drive away. He thinks about what he’d give to know what they say to each other when they’re alone, and he has nightmares about Max, dead face-up in the pool, killed by the demogorgon. 

 

 

Nancy brings muffins, and Mike. That way, no matter what’s happened she can make Steve feel a little better. And also, so she’s not rude. It feels kind of rude to show up in the morning. 

Steve answers the door rubbing his eyes, looking rumpled. “Hi,” he says. 

“Hi,” Mike says. 

“I brought muffins,” Nancy says. 

“I see that. Why are you here?” 

“To find out what happened.” 

Steve nods, puts a hand through his hair. “You can come up to my room,” he says. “Mom and Dad are watching TV.” 

There’s a pervading sense of silence here, even with Steve’s parents. Nancy’s always felt that, the feeling that if no one’s here, none of the Harringtons would say anything to each other. 

Steve shuts the door behind them all. His room is as it always is, a record playing quietly and generally neat. And after Steve kicks some socks under the bed, they all sit on the floor and have a muffin. Then he tells them what happened last night. 

“Shit,” Mike says. “Why didn’t they call me?” 

“Who knows,” Steve yawns. “They were being stupid as shit.” 

“I’m glad they didn’t call you,” Nancy says. “I would wring your neck for putting me through that.” 

Steve nods, looking a little funny. “Yeah,” he says faintly. 

“What is it?” Nancy asks. 

“Nothing, just. Max and Billy were acting weird.” 

“Weird,” Nancy repeats. “Weird how?” 

Steve shrugs. “It’s kind of… I mean.” He looks at Mike, and Nancy would swear she can read his mind. 

“Mike’s old enough,” Nancy says. “For whatever it is.” And Mike sits up a little straighter, looking very proud. 

“Billy got beaten to shit last night,” Steve says. “For Max going missing. Probably happened again when they went home. Max was really scared. I told her she could come over today.” 

Nancy’s heart sinks a little bit. It’s gotta be pretty bad, if Steve’s pitying Billy Hargrove. “I thought she was safe,” she says. 

“I don’t know. So did I.” Steve yawns again. “Like, we can’t really do anything about it. If they stay out, they get in trouble. And fucking Billy is part of the problem too, he doesn’t know how not be a prick to her.” 

“Did he go after Lucas?” Mike asks. 

“No, he didn’t seem to care about him one way or another.” 

Nancy scoots closer to Steve then, and looks at him closer. “You feel bad about this.” 

He shrugs. “Seems like he’s got every reason to be an asshole. Still not nice, and Max is still terrified of him. There’s no real… right thing to do here.” 

That sounds miserable, and also wrong. There’s always a right thing to do. “You did the right thing,” she says. “It’s not like you could stop it from happening altogether.” 

“I know,” Steve says. “Still.” 

Still, he loves everybody that comes into his life, and Nancy loves that about him. Even though it’s stupid. “I know,” she says. “Well. We brought homework, and we’re going to keep you company.” 

Steve smiles. “Groovy,” he says, a little goofy smile on his face, and he leans over to rest his head on her shoulder. 

They spend some time like this, listening to old Fleetwood Mac songs. Mike eventually lies down on his stomach to do some math problems, and Nancy leans back against Steve’s bed to read Catcher in the Rye. Steve falls asleep, lying on the floor next to her, and Nancy smiles whenever she looks down at him. 

Eventually there’s a knock on the front door, and Nancy gets up to get it. Steve’s parents never answer the door if they can help it, and Steve should get some sleep. 

It’s Max, and coming up the walk behind her is Billy. Nancy hugs her, first of all, and says “Are you okay? Steve told me about last night.” 

“I’m fine,” Max says, but her eyes are red. “Where is he?” 

“Upstairs, first door on the left.” Nancy lets her go, stands firmly in Billy’s way and stares at him. He’s got a black eye, and he’s bled through the bandage on his knuckles. “Can I help you?” Nancy says. 

“Steve said I could come,” Billy mumbles. 

“Did he? Because if you had anything to do with why Max has been crying, I guarantee he’ll take it back.”

“I didn’t,” he says, and when he sees she’s not satisfied with that, he adds, “They just yelled at her, she’s fine.” 

“Pretty badly.”

“Yeah,” Billy says shortly. “Pretty bad. And she got off easy. You gonna let me in?” 

It’s a strategy. That much is clear. He gives her a little and asks for a lot. But Nancy doesn’t have to play by his rules. “I might,” she says. “If you tell me what you’re getting out of this.” 

“Nothing,” he says. A flush rises on his cheeks, and Nancy watches intently, curiously. “In case you haven’t noticed, nobody around here’s really talking to me,” he says, so quiet and quick she can barely make it out. “So.” He lifts his shoulders in half a shrug and turns away. 

That’s what he’s getting out of it. Company. Nancy begins to understand why Steve pities him so much. “Okay,” she says. “Come on. Leave your shoes-“ 

“At the door, I know.” He’s still an asshole, even if he’s a lonely one. But he takes his shoes off, and follows her up the steps. 

Max is curled up next to Steve, and Steve has an arm around her though he’s still asleep. Mike looks all-around uncomfortable, though when he makes eye contact with Billy his face hardens. It’s strange to see, he’s just a kid. “What’s he doing here,” Mike says. 

“Same as us. Nothing.” Nancy sits back down and opens her book. Over the top of it, she watches Billy lower himself slowly to the ground. He leans back against the wall, on leg up to rest his arm on it. “There are muffins,” she says, and tosses one to him. 

“Thanks,” he says in a low voice.

“I hate it here,” Max whispers. “I hate it.” 

“It’d be the same anywhere,” Billy answers without looking at her.

Nancy puts her hand on Max’s shoulder. “Are you okay? Do you need aspirin or anything?” 

“No,” Max says, her voice thick. “Billy does, though. And Mom-“ Her voice breaks. Steve holds her tighter. Maybe he’s woken up. 

When Nancy looks at Billy, he shakes his head. Probably a lie. “I’m fine,” he says. “We’re fine.” And Max doesn’t contradict him. 

Secrets are toxic, Nancy’s always thought so. The secret of Barb nearly ruined Steve and her, and the secret of whatever’s going on in their house with their parents is destroying them both in different ways. It makes Nancy angry, a deep slow fire burning in the pit of her stomach. 

Mike looks up at her after a while, and Nancy looks back. He opens his mouth, hesitate and shuts it. “We could talk to Hopper,” he eventually says. “About Mr. Hargrove.” 

Billy snorts. “As if.”

And Max whispers, “Don’t.” 

“He’ll kill us if he knows we’re talking about it.” 

For once, they agree. And it’s conceivable that Hopper could protect the kids, but not certain what would happen after. Nancy knows that, and she can’t have more blood on her hands, not after Barb.

“El could take care of it,” Mike says softly, and Nancy gives him a warning look.

“Yeah,” Billy says sarcastically. “Show him that other place on the TV, that’d stop him.” 

Mike’s mad at being condescended to. He looks down at his book. “At least I don’t hit my sister,” he mutters. 

“The hell did you just say to me?” Billy demands. 

“You heard me,” Mike says, sitting up and glaring at Billy. “Max told us the stuff you used to do to her. You aren’t any better than your dad. You can hit me for saying it if you want to, that doesn’t make it any less true.” 

Nancy has never felt more pride and alarm, except maybe when Steve came back in, bat in hand, to help them with the demogorgon. She tenses when Billy moves, but Billy just flips him off and says, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, kid.”

“Mike, don’t,” Max says. 

“I’m supposed to just ignore it?” Mike says. 

“Yeah,” Max says. “Like everybody else.” 

“Well, I can’t,” Mike says. “And I won’t. It’s wrong.” 

It’s odd to hear something so fundamentally true said aloud by her kid brother. It almost hurts, to know that they share this and not just their parents. She lobs another muffin at Billy’s head, and when he catches it she says, “Touch my brother and I’ll rip your heart out.” 

“I wasn't going to,” he says, sounding exasperated. “Christ.” 

“Right. You just beat up your own kid sister.” 

“Fuck you,” Billy says, leaning forward. “You don’t get it.” 

“I get enough,” she counters. “There are some things that are just wrong.” 

“Is that so,” he says, meeting her eyes with such cool impassivity that Nancy has to reconsider. “You sure about that, Wheeler?” 

Max interrupts. “Stop,” she says. “Stop fighting with Nancy.” 

Oddly enough, Billy stops. He eats the muffin with a dark look on his face, and that’s the end of it. The Wheeler siblings go back to their homework. Max eventually falls asleep, and stays that way even when Steve jerks awake, sitting up with his eyes shut. 

“Nance?” 

“Yep.” 

Steve scrubs at his eyes with his palms, opens them and looks around, blinking blearily. “Hi,” he says to Billy.

“Hi,” Billy says back. 

“How was last night?” 

“Great,” Billy says sarcastically. “Yeah, just great.” 

“Don’t be an ass,” Steve says. “You want ice?” 

“I won’t say no,” Billy answers stiffly. 

“How magnanimous of you.” Steve stands up, asks the rest of them, “Anything you want? Glass of water?” 

“Yeah, thanks,” Nancy says, Mike too, and Steve opens the door. They can hear his feet on the steps. 

Billy looks at her, and at Mike and then at Max, where she’s sleeping on the floor. “My heart,” he says. “With what, your fingernails?” 

It takes a second for Nancy to connect the dots. “Yeah,” she says when she gets it. “If that’s what it takes.” There’s a smile pulling at her mouth, and one on Billy’s too. Nancy thinks this might be something like an understanding. 

 

 

The first snowfall of the winter happens on a game night, and Steve can’t decide if he’s mad or not. It's beautiful but it’s inconvenient, and he hates the winter. Too cold. 

Jonathan and Will get there first. “Hey man,” Jonathan says, and Steve leans in to hug him before he realizes it’s weird. Jonathan hugs back though, so maybe it’s not too weird. 

“Hi,” Steve says. “How are you?” 

“Fine.” Jonathan has something to say. He stands there, while Will goes into the family room, and puts his hands in his pockets. Finally gets himself brave enough to say, “Uh, I want to do Christmas presents. With you. And Nancy. Is that cool?” 

“Yeah,” Steve says after a second. “Totally. I had a couple ideas, I just wasn’t sure if you wanted to.”

“I want to,” Jonathan nods. “Yeah. And I’m gonna tell her, too.” 

“Okay. Cool. Yeah. Awesome, man. Can I get you anything to drink?” 

“Nope, I’m fine. I’ll get it myself.” 

Steve follows Jonathan into the house, lagging behind because he really doesn’t want anyone to see how big his stupid smile is. 

Nancy’s there next, with Mike, but Steve doesn’t really get to talk to her because Hopper and El are there next, and then Lucas and Dustin with Mrs. Henderson. And shortly after that, Max gets here too. Billy brought her, and he’s at the door with her when Steve opens it. 

Steve blinks. “Hi?” 

“Hey.” Billy pushes past both of them, kicks off his shoes and walks into the house. 

Steve looks at Max. “Are you okay with this?” he says. 

She’s got her hands deep in her pockets. “Yeah. I suggested it,” she says. When she looks up at him, her eyes are bright and wet. “I just… is it okay? If he stays for a little bit? I’m sorry.” 

“Hey, hey, it’s fine,” Steve says reassuringly. “It’s totally fine. C’mere.” He hugs her. “I was worried you thought I wanted this, and you were doing it cuz of that.” 

“No,” Max shakes her head. “And I know he’s still a dick to you and he smashed your face in, which I’m sorry about, but Neil’s really mad at him and it’s my fault for going missing last weekend so I thought maybe it’d be better if he got out of the house for a while. If that’s okay.” 

“I’m fine,” Steve tells her. “Okay? Trust me. I’m totally fine. Whatever you’re comfortable with. But it’s not your fault.” 

Max nods, leans back into him for another hug. “It is,” she says quietly. 

“Who says that, Billy?” 

“No, he’s.” She clears her throat and wipes her eyes. “He’s been cool. I just know it’s my fault.” 

Steve looks at her, her pink nose and the hot tears dripping off her face. “He can stay whenever you want,” he says. “Do you want to go clean up in the bathroom?” 

“Yeah. Thanks.” She makes an escape before anybody sees her, and again, Steve takes a second by the door so nobody catches what his face is doing right now. 

Billy appears at the other end of the hall, in the door to the family room. “Something wrong?” he says. He already has a piece of pizza in his hand, half-eaten. And it sounds like a challenge, but not a mean one. One he might be nervous about. 

“Nope,” Steve says. 

Billy leaves about ten minutes into the game, and Steve doesn’t know what to think, really. He’s kind of overwhelmed with all the things he’s trying to get done; talking to Nancy, talking to Jonathan, hanging with the kids, being vigilant of Billy. It’s hard. He’s tired. At the end of the night, he sits between Nancy and Jonathan on the couch and shuts his eyes. 

“Tired?” Nancy says. 

“You’ve got no idea.” He feels the couch move, opens his eyes to see Max sitting next to Nancy. “Hey, Mad Max,” he says. “What’s up. How you feeling?” 

“Okay,” she says. “Sorry for not giving you a warning.” 

“About Billy staying,” Steve explains to the other two. “It’s fine, dude, really. You wanna talk about it?” 

Max glances at the boys who are over in the kitchen with olives on their fingers. Steve makes a mental note to check for olives on the floor before going to bed. “Well. I don’t want to be a bummer.” 

“Go ahead, honey,” Nancy says, and Jonathan nods. 

“Well. It’s just. Well, I told Steve. My stepdad was really mad, when we got back late last weekend and he takes stuff out on Billy. And he has before he married my mom. And I didn’t care when Billy was being mean, but.” She sniffs. “Well, maybe I cared some.” 

“It makes sense if you did, he’s your brother,” Jonathan says. 

“Step brother,” Max corrects. “And I only care sometimes. But he got in pretty bad trouble the other day, and. Then Neil got mad at my mom, and Billy tried to stop him, so. I feel bad. And I can’t explain any of the stuff that’s been happening because he’d never believe me, but it feels like he’s trying to be cool and… I dunno.” She wipes her eyes on her hoodie sleeves. “I’ve thought he changed before. And he would for a couple weeks or something. But. I don’t want to get my hopes up?” She’s actually crying, and Nancy leans over to hold her tight. “Sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” Nancy says. “It sounds confusing.” 

“Yeah, cuz like. I dunno. I feel so stupid, it’s all my fault and I’m making my mom mad and Neil mad and I don’t even get in trouble about it, he does.” 

Nancy rocks her back and forth a little bit, and rubs her back. And Steve just stays where he is. His knee’s touching Jonathan’s. Their shoulders, too. He could fall asleep here, to avoid thinking about the Hargroves and Mayfields. 

“This isn’t your fault,” Nancy says. “It’s your parents’. Okay? I mean it. And you’re not stupid, you can keep up with our brothers. Even I can’t do that most of the time.” 

Max sniffles, a little laugh. “Okay,” she says. 

“We’ll help you no matter what,” Steve says. “Just call.” 

“Okay,” Max repeats, more tearful. 

Jonathan moves, switches seats to hug Max from the other side. Not to be out done,Steve gets up too, kneels in front of the couch and puts his arms around all three of them. This is family. Not a dark bedroom and a silent house. Messy and loud and probably crying. 

“I love you guys,” Max whispers, laughing a little bit too. 

“We love you, kiddo,” Steve says. 

“We do,” Nancy agrees. 

“For sure,” Jonathan adds. 

Someone clears their throat, and they all separate to see Billy, standing in the doorway looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. “Time to go,” he says. 

Max doesn’t argue like she used to. And Steve doesn’t really want to know what the fuck happened to make her feel bad for the guy who slammed her in a wall at least once that she told Steve about. So he gets up too, and calls Billy into the kitchen. “Hey,” he says. “You gonna take more food from me?” 

“Is there more food to take?” Billy comes over to him, greets the kids by grunting, “Hey.” And that’s kinda shocking too. Steve doesn’t know what to say, so he opens the pizza box and lets Billy have what he wants. “Thanks,” Billy says. Which seems to be a surprise, even to himself. 

Steve doesn’t acknowledge it. “You going to Tina’s tomorrow?” 

“I might.” 

“You should,” Steve says. “If you’re trying to rehabilitate your rep.” 

“My rep,” Billy repeats. 

“Yep. Just my two cents.” Steve raises his voice to ask the kids, “Hey, help me clean up over here?” 

Will and Mike jump up to help him, and once everything’s put away Steve finds Billy and Max still here, standing near each other and talking at least cordially. 

“You’ll stay in tomorrow,” Billy says. 

“If you take me to Dustin’s Sunday.” 

“Back by eight.” 

“Nine.” 

“Eight.” 

“Fine.” 

Billy nods once, his face a little softer than usual. And for once, Steve can kind of see what everyone means when they say Billy’s a heartthrob. Maybe when he’s not being disgusting. 

“See you,” he says to Steve. 

“Okay. Yeah.” 

Max says goodbye to the kids, hugs Steve quietly, hugs Nancy too. “Bye honey,” Nancy says. 

“Bye,” Max says, looks at Jonathan awkwardly and then she and Billy leave. Like, together, not him dragging her. 

Mike comes to stand next to Nancy. “Well that’s weird,” he says. “Billy’s nice now?”

“Hardly,” Nancy says. “But he’s not actively an asshole at the moment.” 

“You think he’ll be good to Max?” 

That’s the real question, isn’t it. The reason Steve’s exhausted and trying not to think about the situation too closely. “I don’t know,” Steve says. “We’ll find out.” 

 

 

It’s so easy to make plans. Now, Steve and Jonathan are actually friends. Sometimes Nancy sees them talking at school, without her even being around, or when they all hang out together Jonathan will sit next to Steve and tell him something about his day. Nancy joins, of course, because they’re her two favorite people, but sometimes she watches for a few moments first. Watches Jonathan smile and Steve laugh. 

Some people whisper, about Steve changing his opinion so drastically on Hawkins’ premiere freak. But Jonathan doesn’t listen, Steve doesn’t care, and so Nancy doesn’t put any stock in rumors. 

Jonathan’s been staying over less than usual, but tonight he’s here, reading on one side of Nancy’s bed while she reads on the other. They get along so well, it can be kind of boring sometimes. Not that that’s bad. It’s just. Now, sometimes when it’s just the two of them it feels like there’s something missing. 

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Nancy finally says, putting her book down on her chest to save the spot. “But do you think… do you ever think it’d be better with Steve-“

He cuts her off. “Oh my God, yeah.” 

“Not that you’re not my friend.” 

“Right, no. But the three of us are stronger. And I don’t like thinking about him in that big house alone.” 

Nancy turns to look Jonathan straight on. “Exactly. You’re reading my mind.” 

“He knows he can come over and hang out, right?” 

“Yeah, I told him.” 

“Hmm.” 

Jonathan goes back to his book. So Nancy goes back to hers.

“Maybe we should go to him,” Jonathan suggests, and the window opens. 

“It is fucking cold as shit,” Steve says, tumbling in with a shower of snow. “And a lot more slippery out there.” He rights himself, his hair a damp spiky cloud. “Hi.” 

“Hi,” Nancy says. 

“You could come in the front door,” Jonathan says.

“Where’s the espionage in that? Room for me?” he says, busying himself with pulling off his boots. 

“Of course,” Nancy says. “Get in the middle. But if you’re putting your cold toes on anyone it’s not me. I’d like the record straight on that.” 

Steve shrugs off his coat, puts it over Nancy’s desk chair and puts his hands on his hips as he surveys the bed. “Well. That means you’re the lucky winner, Byers.” 

“Alright. Will does it all the time.”

Steve crawls up in-between them and sits with his back against the headboard. “I’m not your dork little brother,” he says, aware that everyone in the room knows how much he loves that dork little brother. 

“Bad night?” Nancy asks. 

“You could say that,” Steve says. Though he never does. “Went to Tina’s.” 

“And you didn’t invite us?” 

Steve tips his head back. “No,” he says. “I had a bad feeling.” 

“Was it right?” 

“Kinda.” 

Even Jonathan is annoyed by that, and Steve looks between the two of them with a smirk growing on his face. “Look, I don’t want to make the night about me.” 

“Shut up,” Nancy tells him, and he reaches over to put his hand on her knee. “Just tell us.” 

“Billy,” he says, and they both sigh. “I know. Yeah.” 

“Did he get in another fight?” Jonathan mumbles. 

“Scotty was being a real dick,” Steve says. “To me. Billy was doing the whole… keg stand, leather jacket thing. Made out with Nicki Anthony.” 

Nancy can basically picture it. “Sounds like an improvement,” she says. 

“Yeah, it kind of was.” Steve moves a little, and when Nancy turns to look she realizes he’s leaning against Jonathan. “He still picking fights at lunch?” he asks. 

“Not as much,” Jonathan says. “But he still has a black eye every other week.” 

“Yeah,” Steve says slowly. Nancy covers his hand on her leg with her own, and squeezes. “He didn’t get in a fight,” he says. “He’s doing better, at not like, alienating people. Which is good, if he wants to survive the next two years. But things with Scotty were… weird. So. Whatever, he drank a lot and I drove him home. His car’s down the street at Tina’s still.” 

He spends more time thinking about this then Nancy would. But then again, he’s found out a lot that’s changed Nancy’s mind. She wouldn’t know that if he hadn’t kept prying. She’d wipe Billy Hargrove from her mind and ignore him forever. 

“I’m gonna ask both of you for a favor,” Steve says. 

“Go for it,” Nancy says.

“Yeah, go,” Jonathan nods. 

“I’m getting a feeling. And if, uh. If Max asks us to let Billy hang around more, is that… can you be cool with that?” 

“Yeah,” Jonathan says after a second. 

“Nance?” Steve turns his hand over to hold hers, for real, and looks over at her. He’s leaning on Jonathan even more, and Jonathan’s letting him. 

“Look, I don’t want to lie,” she finally says. “He’s detestable.” 

“Yeah,” Steve says. “I know. But Max loves him, and I think he can… change. I think. Don’t tell me I’m an idiot, I already know I am.” 

“You’re not an idiot, you’re just… hopeful,” Jonathan says. “And positive.” 

“Just give him a shot,” Steve says. “And if I’m wrong, that’s on me.” 

“I won’t say no,” Nancy finally answers him. “But I’m not gonna lie to him either.” 

“I’ll take what I can get,” Steve smiles. “What are you two up to?” 

“Reading in silence before you got here,” Jonathan says. “You weren’t interrupting much.” 

“Wow.” Steve looks over at Nancy. “Real exciting night.” 

Nancy squeezes his hand again and then lets go to pick up her book again. “After everything that happened, I think I’d like a little boring,” she says. “For a night.” 

“Me too,” Steve says, and then he falls asleep leaning on Jonathan’s shoulder. Out like a light, like always. Nancy tries not to love this so blatantly. 

“You want to turn the light off?” Jonathan eventually asks. 

“Sure.” It’s past one in the morning, they should probably get some sleep. Nancy folds over the end of her page and shuts the book, putting it on her nightstand and turning off the light without getting out from under her blanket. So mundane, but then she turns back over and she’s facing Steve and Jonathan, both. All three of them.

They’re nestled together so tightly that Nancy keeps waking up when Steve has a nightmare. He startles, and she startles and she thinks Jonathan does too. Twice, and then the third time it’s Jonathan who sits straight up in bed. Nancy sits halfway up too, and Steve rolls over to look at him. “You okay, dude?” he mumbles. 

“I have to go home,” Jonathan says. 

“What?” Nancy says groggily. 

He’s made up his mind, apparently. He gathers his things and almost runs out the door, and Nancy and Steve look at each other for a second before they scramble out of bed to follow. 

“Jonathan,” Nancy whispers once they’re outside. He turns back reluctantly. “Where are you going, what’s going on.” 

“I dreamed the thing had Will again, I just have to check,” he says. “Don’t try and stop me.” 

“We won’t,” Steve says. “Do you need anything?” 

“No, I’m good. Thanks, man.” Jonathan laces his shoes on the driveway, pulls on the second sleeve of his coat that he’d neglected before. “Do either of you smoke?” 

Steve doesn’t, but he’s still wearing his jean jacket and he’s got a pack in the pocket. “Appearances,” he explains, and Nancy is hopelessly endeared. 

“Picked it up from my mom,” Jonathan says. “But I don’t really.” So Jonathan has a smoke outside in the driveway, as the sun rises. Smoke curls out of his mouth, and Nancy thinks about fire and heat and the creature that came out of Will. She thinks she’ll check on Mike when she goes back inside. Just in case. 

“What if it comes back,” Jonathan says. 

“We probably have a little time,” Steve says. “Right?” 

“We don’t know that.” 

They don’t, so neither of them know what to say. “The kids would know,” Nancy finally says. “And they’d tell us.” 

“I’ll see you for dinner? Will said the kids are doing study group again then.” 

“Yeah,” Nancy nods. “We’ll see you then.” She hugs him goodbye, then stands there, shivering with her arms crossed while Steve hugs Jonathan too. Down the street, a blue car revs its engine and speeds away. 

“When’s that Christmas party your mom always has?” Steve asks, watching Jonathan leave. 

“In two weeks, the twenty-first,” Nancy says. “Your parents coming?” 

“Oh yeah. They wouldn’t miss it for anything. Hawkins only major social event of the year.” Steve puts his arm around her and they head back inside together. “Kids coming?”

“Just our kids. I said we’d babysit.” 

“Nice.” 

They curl up in bed again together, the two of them. Steve presses his icy toes against her calf and she kicks him, but she lets him put them back because he also has his arms around her and it feels safe. “Miss you,” he says, already falling back asleep. 

“Miss you too,” she whispers back anyways. 

 

 

It’s not like he was never aware how empty and meaningless the Hawkins high school social hierarchy is. He knew it most of the time, and participated anyways, for the fun of it. And it is fun, to have people like him almost no matter what, to make jokes and help grease the wheels so everyone has a good time. It’s enough, mostly. 

It’s just fine tonight. Last party before Christmas break, that’s a good enough reason to be there, after he drops Dustin off at the dance and before he heads over to Nancy’s bed, to be sandwiched in between Jonathan and her. Since last weekend, the first time they spent the night together there, they’ve done it five nights out of the past week. It’s just comfortable. He thinks about them in that bed as he drains his drink, and thinks about maybe heading out. 

Nancy and Jonathan walk in just then, hands linked, and Steve doesn’t feel even a twinge of jealousy. They aren’t leaving him. In fact, they’re coming over to him, smiling at him, and Steve would trade every square inch of social cache he has to keep this second crystal clear in his mind forever. 

“Hey,” he smiles. 

“Hi,” Nancy answers for both of them. She looks as gorgeous as she did a couple hours ago at the school, hair curly and eyes bright. “How’s the night?” 

“It’s alright. Better now that the two of you showed up,” Steve adds. It sounds stupid and cheesy, but it works anyways. They smile. And it’s true. 

“You thinking about leaving?” Nance asks. “It’s hot in here. And there’s like a limited amount of time before the police are called.” 

Good point. Steve’s agreeing with her, and then things get ruined, kind of. 

Scotty, who’s been pestering Billy for weeks, finally decides tonight’s the night to reach his maximum asshole potential. “What happened to your real mommy,” Steve hears, and he shoves four people to get over to the living room. Scotty’s talking more shit, but Steve just sees the look of sheer fury in Billy’s eyes, and he’s scared to his guts. 

“Hey,” Steve says sharply. “Pack it up.” 

Scotty won’t stop. “C’mon, Hargrove. What, are you too interested in keeping that mysterious tough guy thing.”

Billy isn’t thinking about that - he isn’t thinking about anything. Steve’s seen this before. If he closes his eyes right now he’ll see the last time, burned into the back of his eyes. So he doesn’t close his eyes. He moves in front of Billy, between the two of them, looks him straight in the eyes and says, “Don’t do this.”

“Stay out of it,” Billy says in a rough voice. 

“Do you want to go to jail?” Steve says. “He talks shit because his dad protects him, you want to play right into that?” 

“Get out of the _way_ , Harrington.” When Steve doesn’t, Billy shoves him, lunges at Scotty but stumbles too hard. He’s not sober enough to win this fight, too angry. So Steve sticks his foot out and trips him. 

It’s like last time. Billy turns on him and gets on top of him, fist reared back and Steve’s ice cold all over, waiting for the blow. Instead Billy gets shoved by someone else, by Nancy who is standing, furious, over them both. “Get up, idiot,” she snaps, and they both obey. For a second, Steve thinks she might be able to shock Billy out of it. But then Scotty runs his mouth again, and Steve doesn’t stop Billy from going after him anymore.

The cops are called, get there ten minutes into the fight and arrest everyone with bloody knuckles. Nancy’s fine, Jonathan got her out. But some of Scotty’s friends were trying to even the odds, so Steve helped Billy defend himself. But that means Billy and Steve both get handcuffs on them, thrown in the back of a cruiser and taken to the station. 

They get their own cell, separate from Scotty and his cohorts so they can’t start anything again. From there, it’s just the shittiest waiting game of all time, probably. 

Steve rinses the blood off his hands in the tiny prison cell sink. He swishes some water in his mouth, spits pink into the sink. His arm is sore, and his leg where someone kicked him. The whole time, he’s got an eye on Billy who’s sitting in the bed not moving, eyes closed. 

“Billy,” Steve finally says. No response. “If you get some of this blood off, you’ll look like less of a violent criminal.” Still nothing. 

Their parents could show up at any time. And if Steve looks a little more respectable and Billy looks like a fucking brawler straight out of some movie, that won’t serve him well. So Steve gets a huge wad of toilet paper, wets it, and sits down next to Billy. 

“Are you passed out for real, or are you just pissed,” he says. The lack of answer would imply the first thing, so Steve reaches out to wipe at some of the blood on Billy’s chin. There’s a lot. 

At the first touch, Billy starts and slaps Steve’s hand away. Steve looks at him, annoyed but patient. “I gave you like, six warnings,” he says. 

“Don’t fucking bother,” he thinks Billy says. Then he sniffs deeply, clears his throat, and says clearer, “When Dad’s done with me, this won’t be shit.” 

“You’ve never been arrested?” Steve frowns. He hands him the toilet paper and Billy takes it with a look. 

“No. Cuz we didn’t used to live in a fucking small town. Where everybody knows your Goddamn name.” He wipes at his face a couple times and the wad is soaked through with blood. 

Steve gets up to get him some more. Billy kind of cleans himself off, gets bored and tosses everything in the toilet without getting up. Then he just sits there, in his bloodstained, beer-soaked jacket and jeans. He would be furious if he knew Steve pitied him so intensely right now. 

“Why’d you help me?” Billy says. 

“Because you were getting your ass kicked.” 

“That didn’t bother you in the past.” 

“You deserved it in the past. But Scotty… we used to be friends. I know what a piece of shit he is. He was out of line.” Steve can’t sit still. He hops up and paces, puts his hand through his hair a couple times and tries to tamp down the rising sense of horror that things must be bad. Billy’s barely moving, he’s not arguing and Steve reads into that. He reads fear, and it makes him scared too. “We haven’t been booked yet,” Steve says.

“So?” 

“So, maybe they’re gonna let us get out of this without criminal charges,” Steve says. He’d say that’s likely, even. 

“Great,” Billy says flatly. 

Yeah. Maybe it doesn’t matter that much. It’s hard to know, so Steve keeps pacing. 

Finally, someone comes in. It’s Hopper, looking tired and annoyed. He stands outside the door of the cell and crosses his arms. “Hey kiddo,” he says. “What the fuck?” 

Steve sighs, relieved and embarrassed at once. “Yeah,” he says. “I know. Are we arrested?” 

“No,” Hopper says. “Not yet. What the fuck are you doing, getting into a fight at party? You’re supposed to be smarter than that.” 

“I know,” Steve says. “It’s a long story, okay?” 

“Whatever.” Hopper pulls a pack of cigarettes out, lights one and then rubs his eyes, very deeply. It sounds squishy and gross. “You wanna tell me why nobody’s picking up at your house?” 

“Parents aren’t home this weekend.” 

Hopper nods; the Harringtons’ affinity travel is a pretty well-known fact, as much as Steve hates that. “Okay.”

“Did you already call Billy’s parents?” 

“Yeah, Steve, you both are minors,” Hopper says, annoyed. “There are consequences.” 

“Are there consequences for Scotty, for saying disgusting shit to get people to punch him out? Or is his dad gonna fix all of that for him.”

Hopper nods. El’s made him better at absorbing anger without snapping back. “I don’t know. I can ask. I have to go figure out if you’re getting out of this.” 

Steve nods. “Okay. How’s El?” 

Hopper looks at Billy. “She’s good,” he says. “She’s coming to your house tomorrow, right?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Okay.” Hopper’s almost done with his cigarette. “Is everything good, with the kids? You see ‘em more than I do.” 

“They’re good, yeah. They’re smart.”

Hopper nods. Then he has a question it looks like he just thought of. “Do I need to bring anything to the Wheeler’s party next weekend? I didn’t go last year.” 

“No,” Steve says. “She’s got all the food under control. You’re coming, though? And Joyce?” 

“Yeah, she’s coming,” Hopper nods. 

“Cool.” 

“Okay. I’ll come back when I know something.” 

“Thanks.” 

Hopper leaves, and it’s the two of them again, Steve pacing and Billy just sitting. The air gets tense again, and Steve feels his heart rate picking up. 

“He’s El’s dad?” Billy finally says. 

“Adopted, yeah.” Steve leans agains the wall, looks up at the ceiling. 

“Adopted,” Billy repeats. “And the weird shit she can do, what’s that.”

“Before he took her in, she was experimented on.” 

Billy wipes his nose; it’s still bleeding. “At the lab?” 

“Yep.” 

They stop talking after that, tension kind of taking over and shutting them up. Steve eventually sits down too, next to Billy, and shuts his eyes. He almost gets a second of sleep. But then Billy says “Hey man,” and reaches out for him. 

Steve can’t let him. He flinches away and covers it by getting back up again. “Scared?” Billy says, his tone turning to taunting so quickly it makes Steve sick. 

“Sorry,” Steve says. “You broke my face in two places and tried to hit me again tonight, I’m not exactly feeling like a hug.” 

Billy doesn’t meet his eyes. “Fuck you,” he says. 

“Fuck you. You’re welcome, by the way. You’d be in fucking coma if I hadn’t stopped Burke from smashing a bottle over your head.” Steve crosses his arm. 

“Sure,” Billy says. “So you try and keep me out of jail but I still scare you shitless. That makes no fucking sense.” 

“Well,” Steve says. “Learn to wrap your head around it. I guess.” 

Even the argument is kind of pale, in comparison to the very clear and obvious dread Billy’s dealing with. Steve keeps avoiding looking at him, looking anyways and seeing how scared he is. He doesn’t want to empathize with him. 

“‘M sorry,” Billy eventually speaks. He’s fiddling with the ring on his right hand. “I didn’t mean…” 

Steve doesn’t get a chance to hear exactly what Billy did or didn’t mean to do, because the door opens and Hopper’s back. “Your father’s here,” he says to Billy, and Steve watches Billy’s blood run cold. He can see it. 

So Steve offers him a hand up. “Come on,” he says. 

Billy takes his hand, pulls himself up and Steve can’t say that the feel of him doesn’t still have his instincts in a fucking spiral of panic, telling him he might get punched in the face again. But Billy doesn’t punch him. He holds onto his hand for a moment longer after he’s on his feet, stands next to him and takes a deep breath. 

“You coming over with Max tomorrow?” Steve says. 

“You don’t want that.”

“I’ll tell you if I don’t.” 

Billy looks at the ground, and Hopper looks at them. Steve imagines what he’s thinking, doubting Steve for inviting this guy to hang with the kids. And Billy says, “Fuck you, Harrington.” And steps out of the cell first. 

Hopper raises his eyebrows, but Steve shakes his head. That wasn’t real. And everybody gets to have their coping mechanisms. So he doesn’t try and stop Billy when he storms ahead, and neither does Hopper. Hopper just looks at Billy, then at Steve. 

“Is something going on here?” Hopper asks. 

“Yeah,” Steve says. “Something. I’ve got it handled.” Probably a lie. But it’s not Hopper’s job. 

They miss meeting Billy’s dad. By the time they make it out, not even ten seconds behind Billy, They’re both at the door. His dad hasn’t touched him, hasn’t caught up with him yet even, but that doesn’t mean shit. The night is long. 

“Steve,” Hopper says. “What’s going on.” 

“Just trying to do the right thing,” Steve says. 

“The right thing means befriending a delinquent?” 

“In this case, yeah.” Steve looks over at him. “Are you letting me go?” 

“As long as this never happens again. Hey, I mean never.” 

Steve nods. “Yeah, I don’t plan on being that stupid again.” 

“Good. Then you’re free to go. Jonathan and Nancy are waiting outside.” 

That dude. What the fuck. Steve rolls his eyes and makes a break for the door. The two of them are gonna be going crazy. 

They are. Jonathan’s smoking, and Nancy’s wound tighter than a drum. They both jump when they see him, run to hold him and Steve sees past them, a car pulling out of the parking lot. 

“Are you okay?” Jonathan asks.

“Yeah, I’m fine. You guys got out okay?” 

“More than okay,” Nancy says. 

“Did you see Billy leaving a second ago?” 

They both get tense and pull back. “His dad?” Nancy asks, and when Steve nods she says, “He said something when they were driving away. We couldn’t hear what.” 

“Billy’s scared shitless,” Steve says. “I told him to come over tomorrow, but. His car’s still at the party.” 

“We can go take it to him,” Jonathan says. “Tomorrow. I’m bringing Will over around ten, so they can have their all-day thing. But I’ll be working most of the day.”

“Okay. Are you staying with Nancy tonight?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Can I…” 

“Of course!” Nancy says immediately. “Yes. Come on, we’ll worry about cars tomorrow. Just come home with us.” Steve nods, and Nancy gives him a new hug, holding him tightly in her arms. She’s so tiny and delicate and fierce and strong, and Steve doesn’t want to say anything because he’ll tell her he loves her. “We’ll get some sleep, and we’ll handle tomorrow. Together.” 

“Yeah,” Jonathan nods. “We can handle it.” 

“We can handle it,” Steve repeats and wants it to be true. 

 

 

Max accosts Nancy the moment she steps in Steve's door. "What are you doing today?" she asks. El and Will are with her. 

"I'm not sure. Aren't you playing D&D with the boys?" Nancy frowns, and then yawns. 

Will shakes his head. 

"Mike wanted to use the Mind Flayer, but we didn't want to. But we didn't want to stop them, so we're going to play when they're done facing the Mind Flayer," Eleven says firmly.

Nancy wants to hug all three of them. "Okay. Well, I’m going to make snacks and cookies and clean up the kitchen. Dishes everywhere stress Steve out," she adds, "so I'm doing it as a favor." 

"He seems tired," Will says, giving her a perceptive look. "Jonathan does too." 

"We had a rough night," Nancy answers, taking off her shoes and coat. She has to tiptoe to avoid stepping in a patch of melting snow. "Is everyone else here?" 

Max nods. "Billy is too," she says. 

Nancy's chest tightens up. "Yeah," she says. "I heard he might be. Do you want to help me?" 

The three of them agree, not all that reluctantly, and Nancy has an inkling something else might be going on. Other than just avoiding the imaginary Mind Flayer. So she grabs Max for a hug on the way to the kitchen, pulling her in and pausing to really hold her. "Everything's alright?" she asks. 

"Yeah, whatever," Max mumbles, face firmly in Nancy's shoulder. But she hangs on for a little while longer. 

"Jonathan and Steve brought Billy's car back earlier, right?" 

"Yeah." 

Nancy bites her lip. "Y'know, Max. Brothers can be kind of dense about this stuff. I think sisters are better at it. And I think something's bothering you." 

"I'm fine." Max kind of pushes her in her hurry to get away. "I'm fine, I don't even care about the stupid Mind Flayer, but I didn't want El and Will to feel weird. I'm fine," she repeats a third time, which is when Nancy becomes sure she is definitively un-fine. 

Before heading to the kitchen, Nancy stops to say hi to Steve and everyone else. Dustin's still a little starry-eyed when he looks at her, but then so is Steve. Maybe it's just how people look at people they've saved the world with. She doesn't give it much thought. 

"Did you talk to Hopper?" she asks Steve.

"Yeah, he doesn't know. He'll tell me when he does. So." Steve won't meet her eyes, so he apparently doesn't want to acknowledge that the injustice of the whole situation kept him up last night. Scotty might get off with nothing. Probably will. But the police aren't the only ones who could punish him. Nancy considers suggesting this, and immediately thinks better of it. 

"Okay. You want anything to eat?" she asks the whole table. Everybody shakes their heads; it's ten in the morning, after all. 

"I'd take a cup of coffee," Billy says from the couch. Nancy has been doing her best to ignore him but she has to look at him now, at the smug flirtatious smile he's trying to give her. He's got a black eye and his lip is split. 

"Then come get it yourself," she says, and retreats to the kitchen, where Max, Will and El are already talking. 

"He can't exactly walk," she hears Max say to no one in particular. 

"Then he could ask me nicely, instead of treating me like a servant," Nancy says, and opens the fridge. "We're going to make sandwiches for later." She pulls out lunch meats and bread. "Who wants to do that?" Eleven and Will volunteer, take the containers to the counter and begin to assemble some sandwiches. They're talking too, low and under their breath, their heads bent together close. 

Max kind of watches them dejectedly. "We're going to make coffee," Nancy says to distract her. "Do you know how?" 

"Will you show me?" Max asks, twisting a piece of hair around her finger. 

"Yeah, of course. The rule at my house is, if you make it you can drink it." Nancy smiles at her.

Max smiles back, looking a little nervous. "Okay." 

So Nancy walks her through the process, coffee filter, measuring ground coffee, and filling the pot. It's not that complicated, but Max hangs on her every word. She asks about coffee types, and where it comes from and Nancy tells her the very little she knows because it feels like Max wants any excuse to keep talking. 

"Hey, Nancy?" Will eventually says. "Can you come check on these?" 

"Yeah, for sure," Nancy says. "Max, would you clean off the counter top? All the dishes can go in the sink.” 

"Sure." 

Nancy goes over between the other two kids to look at the plate they've filled. "Six turkey swiss," El says. "Two ham. Two cheese and tomato."

"Perfect," Nancy says. "Those can go in the fridge for later. You know when Jonathan's getting here?" 

"I think he gets off work around dinner," Will says. 

He'll miss most of the day. And they did spend the night together, but Nancy can't help but feel a little grumpy. "Okay. Should we make cookies next?" 

"Cookies," El repeats, and it's not clear if it's agreement or confusion. 

Nancy answers both, just in case. "Yes. Sugar cookies, and some icing for decoration, which I'll let you guys handle. It's a dry run for the party next weekend."

"That sounds good," Will says. 

"Can we cut them into whatever we want?" Max asks. 

"Of course we can." 

So Nancy's getting out all the baking materials, bowls and mixers and flour and sugar and eggs, and in saunters Billy. Well. As much as a limp can be a saunter. “Coffee?” he says. 

“Mugs to the left of the sink. Cream in the fridge.” Nancy doesn’t look up at him. 

“Did I do something to you?” Billy asks. 

Nancy imagines she can feel the kids hold their breath. “You know what you’ve done,” she says, the mildest response she can muster. 

“What, rearranging your boyfriend’s face?” 

Nancy just gives him a look, angry and unimpressed. “Try again. Guys, can you all wash your hands? Then we’ll start making a batch of cookie dough.” 

They all obey, crossing to the sink, but Billy stays where he is. He’s looking at Nancy intently. When Nancy has the kids all occupied, measuring and mixing ingredients, he comes over to get his cup of coffee. “My family is none of your business, Wheeler,” he says, unusually quiet. Maybe he doesn’t want Max to overhear. 

“Kids getting hurt is-“

“I don’t hurt her anymore,” he cuts her off. 

“That’s some lofty moral high ground,” Nancy says. 

“Yeah, well you would know.” 

That hits home. Nancy can feel her cheeks burning, and she yanks open the drawer of baking sheets a little harder than needed, punches the buttons on the stove to get it pre-heated. Billy gets a mug, hops over to add cream to his coffee. Then he just stands there, watching her cover the sheets in waxed paper. “Do you need something else?” she eventually asks. 

“Yeah, you need to tell me what your problem is,” Billy says. 

“Go sit down,” she says, and when he gives her a look she adds, “Go, the kitchen table. I’ll be over.” Because the kitchen table is tucked away in a corner of the kitchen, so the kids won’t hear them. And also because he shouldn’t be standing so long. 

Something about her must have Billy convinced. He goes, and after she gets the kids set rolling and cutting out dough, Nancy joins him, sitting next to him and looking at him. “My problem,” she says without preamble, “is very clear. And I don’t know why you’ve decided it matters now. If you’re nice to her or not.” 

“You want me to explain to you how I treat my own goddamn sister,” he says, sounding very patient but very not. 

“Maybe I do.”

“That’s not your place.” 

“I think it is.” 

Billy and her have both leaned in while arguing; he leans back now, and takes another sip of coffee. He’s deliberately keeping himself together, and Nancy can’t decide if it’s threatening or nice. “I don’t owe you shit,” he says. “I don’t do that anymore.” 

“No? Then why’d I see you on top of Steve last night?” Nancy says. “You would’ve kicked his ass if I hadn’t stopped you. Wonder what that would’ve done to that friendship.” 

He bristles visibly at that, hackles up, but Nancy doesn’t care. “I don’t care if you explain,” she says quietly. “I’m never going to understand how you’ve treated Max. Never.” A long pause for emphasis. “But I can… learn to live with that,” she says with effort. 

“Could you really.” 

“If you continue to be so sarcastic, this will be a lot harder.” Billy gives her a very patronizing look, but he shuts up. “Yes,” Nancy says. “I could. As long as we have the understanding that if you ever hurt one of my friends again-“

“Heart, fingernails, yeah,” he nods. 

That makes her like him again. Like last time. “Heard you had a rough night too,” she says. “Hungry?” 

He nods, once. Seems nervous. Nancy gives him one of the sandwiches. Then she’s called away by the trio of bakers, who need help moving their creations to the baking sheets. There’s a skateboard, a pencil, other shapes Nancy doesn’t recognize yet. She gets them all baking, and then the kids congregate around the table with Billy and her. Max sits next to her brother, Nancy notes with some surprise. Maybe things have really changed. 

“Can we make chocolate chip?” Will asks. “With oatmeal? And peanut butter? El hasn’t tried those yet.” 

“He says, better than Eggos,” Eleven says, with clear disdain. 

“There are lots of things better than those things,” Max says. “Even Billy can make those, and he can cook.” Billy shoves her, but it’s almost gentle. And Max isn’t scared, she almost smiles. 

El remains firm in her convictions. “Eggos,” she says calmly. “Are the best. Duh.” 

“Duh,” Will echoes with a goofy smile, and El smiles back. “Eggos don’t have chocolate chips, though. Or peanut butter.” 

“They can.” 

“You know what I mean,” Will rolls his eyes, and both the girls smile. 

“I could put cookies on the Eggos,” Eleven says next, and Max pretends to gag. “Weird?” El asks. 

“Yes,” Max says. Will nods. 

“Okay.” El looks at Nancy. “I can’t take them to school. When I go. Hopper says.” 

“Oh, for lunch?” Nancy says. 

“Yes.” 

“When do you start going?” 

“January,” El nods firmly. “Yes. I will be in ninth grade. And not allowed to use any powers at school.” 

Billy flicks a glance at Nancy, then looks back at El. “Good ground rule,” he says. “Might want to learn to talk better too.” 

“I practice,” El tells him. “I’m talking better.” 

He kind of shrugs, and El loses interest in arguing with him. “I’ll have class with Max,” she tells Nancy. “And the boys.” 

“The boys are a nightmare in school,” Nancy says. “I’ve heard a lot of second-hand complaints. Dustin talks through every class.” 

“Told you they were trouble,” Billy says to Max. 

“Fuck off,” Max rolls her eyes. 

“Hey,” Nancy frowns. “Maybe leave that to a minimum.”

Everyone at the table’s kind of amused by that, but Nancy sticks to her guns. “We need to have some rules,” she says. “Or else you start swearing around your parents and we’re all fucked.” 

“Compelling logic,” Billy says, and Nancy smells the cookies and remembers they might be burning. 

“Shit,” she says, and runs over to open the oven. They’re just starting to burn, and she can’t find any potholders. “Shit,” Nancy says again, and Eleven’s at her side almost instantly. 

“I’ve got it,” she says. 

“No,” Nancy says, pushing El’s outstretched hand down. “I have. Don’t.” 

“Everyone knows,” El complains. “I want to help.” 

“Not Billy.” 

Eleven gives her a deeply patient look, which is almost insulting coming from a thirteen-year-old. “He knows,” she says, and then immediately gets embroiled in an argument with Max about whose cookies turned out best. Nancy is annoyed, but not surprised. 

All the cookies get baked before lunch, laid out to cool in neat rows on brown paper. Nancy’s arranging the last tray-full when the kids all storm the kitchen for lunch, retreating to the dining room table to eat and get into a million insignificant arguments and jokes. Max, Dustin, and Lucas split from the others for a whispered conversation by the couch, and Nancy finds that suspicious. She considers asking Max about it later, hasn’t finished that train of thought when Steve leans next to her on the counter, sandwich in hand. 

“Hey. How's cookies going?" he asks, taking a bite of his sandwich. 

"Good. How's the game?" 

"Going fine." He looks at her, looks down with a weird look on his face. 

"What?" Nancy asks. 

"Nothing." 

"You've been giving me strange looks," she says. "For a while now." 

"It's nothing." 

She gives him a look, even though he's not looking back. "Steve. I know you, I know when something's not nothing." 

"It's not important, it's just going to be confusing. And-"

"I want to hear it." 

"And it's gonna ruin this," he says on top of her. Then he motions, between the two of them. "Us. And Jonathan. It'll ruin that." 

"It won't, Steve. It won't. Just tell me." And Nancy tries not to use it too much, but she has a decent puppy dog look. It gets Steve every time. 

Steve takes another bite, looking everywhere but at her. "Don't say anything," he says. "It'll just make it worse. But. I still love you. I've... always, kinda. So. Just. That." 

"Steve."

"Don't-"

"No, really, Steve. I love you too. And I love Jonathan, okay? And after everything, I'm not going to choose just one of you." 

Steve looks up at her. "Yeah?" 

"Yes. A hundred thousand percent." She steps closer, and if it was a month ago she’d kiss him. Instead she puts her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry I ever said that stuff, at the party.” 

Steve starts to smile in his eyes, warmth spreading straight to Nancy’s heart. He tries to stay cool, takes another bite and takes a while chewing it. “Yeah,” he says. “I knew you didn’t mean it.” 

He didn’t though. And Nancy loves so many things about him in the moment that she can’t really decide what to say. She turns to lean against the counter next to him, and lets Steve pull her into him with an arm around her shoulders. “We’ve gotta tell Jonathan,” he says.

Nancy shuts her eyes for a second, tells herself that this isn’t the happiest she’s ever been, it can’t be. Close, though. Everything is just good. 

“Nancy?” Mike comes over, then smiles and waggles his eyebrows at the two of them. “Oh, so this is back on?” 

“What do you want?” Nancy says patiently. 

“Oh. Do we have to dress up? For Mom’s party?” 

“What do you think? Of course we do.” 

“No,” he groans. “Like a nice sweater?” 

“You could probably get away with that if you brush your hair. And remember, you’re on the hook for the veggie platter.” 

Mike remains unhappy, but he nods. “It’s not fair. Dad doesn’t do anything.” 

“Well he should,” Nancy says. “But the answer isn’t to leave more work for Mom and me.”

“Hell yeah,” Steve says. “Feminism.” 

That is meaningless to Mike. He walks away, and Steve tilts his head against hers. “Hey,” he says. “You’re amazing.” 

“You’re not so bad yourself. People might figure out you’re smart pretty soon, if you’re not careful.” 

They get a second more of being like this, together, and then the kids call Steve back to the game, and Nancy returns to the kitchen with her helpers. Billy, she discovers, has been watching her and Steve the whole time. But he doesn’t seem to want any trouble. He stays quiet all through the icing-making process. Though maybe he’s just tired, Nancy thinks. So she doesn’t give him too much credit. 

He limps over when she’s adding food coloring to various bowls. “Hey.” 

“Hey yourself,” Nancy says. “What do you want?”

“Can I help?” 

Nancy looks at him blankly. “You want to decorate cookies?” 

“That a problem?” he says, getting hostile, and something about that makes Nancy feel a little more secure. 

“No,” she says. “Can you stand, though?” 

“I’m fine,” he claims, even though he has all his weight on one leg.

“Okay. Well. They have very strict dibs, you should ask them which you can do,” Nancy says. She half expects him not to do it, but he does. He listens to the kids telling him what to frost, obeys, and Nancy’s free to start cleaning up instead of managing the kids. 

She doesn’t just clean up. She doesn’t trust him enough for that, she keeps her eye on him while she washes the mixing bowls. He’s a big guy. He’s tall and strong. He could hurt one of them so easily, even handicapped like he is. He has in the past. 

But he doesn’t. He keeps them in line non-violently. “Hey, don’t frost the plate, stupid,” he says to Max at one point. 

“Mouth breather,” she mutters back, and El grins. 

A bit later, Will knocks a frosted cookie off the counter, gets frosting on Billy’s jeans. Nancy’s never gotten the full story from Jonathan about their dad, but she thinks there’s something more to how scared Will gets. She’s ready to end Billy’s fucking life. But he just picks it up, wipes the frosting off his pant leg and licks his finger clean. “If it’s broken you can probably eat it,” he says. 

So after that Nancy keeps less of an eye on them. She hears bits and pieces of their conversation, like Eleven telling everyone how to set up a trip wire and Max and Billy talking about California. She’d like to listen to that a little closer, but Jonathan walks in then and she gets a bit distracted. 

“Hey, how was work?” Nancy asks, hugging him. 

Jonathan frowns, points at Billy next to Will. “Fine…” 

“It’s okay,” she says. “I promise. I know it sounds weird.” 

He nods, looks over at them again. “Making cookies,” he says dubiously. 

“Apparently.” 

“Do you need help with the washing?” 

“That’d be great.” 

Steve comes over then. “Hey man, how’s it going?” 

“Good. How was the game?” 

“Pretty good. Wrapping up for the night. I told the kids they could watch a movie if they wanted, will you stay for that?” 

“Yeah, of course.” Jonathan’s watching Steve talk with a soft expression Nancy seems to recognize from somewhere. And Steve’s looking back.

Steve nods. “I’m going to take Dustin and Lucas home, and then I could come over. If you want.” 

“I do,” Jonathan nods, and his enthusiastic agreement is so rare Nancy thinks about making a plaque for the occasion. Maybe a certificate. 

He goes over to Will to say hi, ruffle his hair and eat one of his cookies. And he says hi to Billy too, warily, and receives a civil answer. It’s groundbreaking, and Nancy is so proud. 

They all get on the couch to watch the movie together, some of the kids on the floor in front of it. El and Mike are twined together in front of her, and Steve and Jonathan sit on either side of her. Jonathan holds her hand, Steve has his head on her shoulder. And she was right before, because this is it. The happiest she’s ever been. 

Ten minutes in, something slams into the glass door behind them and everyone has a heart attack at the same time, all but one probably thinking the same thing. Demogorgon, right? But it’s not. It’s just a man, slamming his fist against the door and yelling, “You’re fucking dead.”

“Billy,” Max says, her voice quivering. 

“Fuck,” Billy whispers. 

It's his dad. Nancy feels light-headed. She stands up, ignoring Steve and Jonathan telling her not to, and cracks the door. "Sir, please don't yell. It's late, people are sleeping." 

"I want my son in my Goddamn car," he says. He's seething, it's terrifying. But Nancy faced down a demogorgon and a shadow monster possessing Will. She feels herself getting mad back. 

"I'll tell him that. But right now you're trespassing on private property. Please leave our backyard." 

He doesn't want to listen to her. She knows what disdain looks like and she's seen it from his son, too. But he's a coward, he doesn't want to face any actual consequences, so he stalks away towards the front of the house and Nancy shuts the door. 

Billy's up too, hobbling over to the table to get his coat from the chair it's on and pull it. "Come on, Max," he says. Nancy's never heard this tone from him. 

"Why's he here?" Steve asks. He gets up too, with Jonathan at his heels. 

"I guess he wants us back home," Billy answers, such a bullshit response. "Max. Come on." 

Max is in Lucas and Eleven's arms, trying not to cry by the looks of things. "He didn't say me," she says, but she stands up. 

"I'll stop him," Eleven says like she's just decided, and rises to her feet. 

"No, you won't." Steve turns back to look at her. "El, you can't." 

"You'll have to go into hiding again," Jonathan says. "No school. You don't want that." 

El clenches her jaw, and the ice on the pool outside cracks, but nothing more. The other kids seem kind of paralyzed by what's happening, and Nancy can't blame them. 

"Max," Billy says, voice cracks, and Max heads for the front door without argument, Billy following slower, limping. 

Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan exchange looks. "I'll stay with the kids," Jonathan says. 

They know what Nancy will do. She almost runs for the door, and Steve follows. Max and Billy are putting their shoes on, or Max is and Billy's trying. Swollen ankle and stiff boots don't go well together. 

"Sit down," Steve says to him. 

"We have to go," Billy shakes his head. 

"I know. It'll go faster if you let me help." 

So Billy sits on the first couple steps to upstairs, and Steve kneels down to help unknot the laces. Nancy hugs Max in the meantime. "We can call Hopper," she says. 

"No," Billy says before she's finished speaking. He sounds tired. 

"Why not?" Max's voice is thick. "He can't make it worse." 

"You don't know shit." 

He's scared too. They're both scared of the man outside. It's not exactly news, but it's different to see it. Part of Nancy inside is glad he's scared. He's terrorized his sister, maybe he deserves it. Though Steve would be mad if he knew she was thinking that. 

Max squeezes Nancy tight. Billy stands up and looks at Steve in a way that seems significant. "You gonna be around?" he asks. 

"Yeah. If I'm not here I'll be at Nancy's, or Jonathan's. But you don't have to just go with him."

"Yeah, I do." Billy moves for the door.

"So I'm supposed to just let him break your other ankle?" Steve says, slipping in between the door and Billy. "Scare the shit out of Max, that's just something I'm supposed to be fine with?"

"It's my fault," Max says. She can hardly catch her breath. "I lost track of time."

"Shut up." Billy looks at her, lets out a breath it seems like he's been holding and pulls her out of Nancy's arms. Nancy's ready to tell him off, until he wraps his arms around Max. He just holds her for a second, Max dwarfed in his arms, and then he lets go. “Come on,” he says. “We have to go.” He opens the door and leaves, but that’s not the end of it. Steve follows him out so Nancy follows them all, even though she doesn’t have time to get shoes or a coat on. 

“Get in the car,” Billy’s dad says, and Nancy doesn’t miss how Max cringes into her brother. It doesn’t matter if their dad doesn’t hit her, she’s hurt all the same. 

“Hey,” Steve calls out. “Don’t you need to take your car back?” 

Billy looks back at Steve, his face in shadow, and looks back at his dad. “And have you run off again? No. Get it towed, for all I care.” His dad is dismissive of Steve too. Nancy gets mad about that. 

“We won’t do that,” she says. “Just let him drive it back.” 

“Nancy,” Billy sighs, so softly she can barely hear it. 

“This is none of your business, missy,” his father says. 

“Kind of is my business,” Steve says. “My driveway.” 

Billy tosses his keys back at them; Steve catches them, one long arm shooting up. “Catch you later,” Billy says, and he opens the car door. 

Max runs back to them, to hug Steve. “Maxine,” her dad shouts, and Nancy tiptoes the few more steps on cold pavement to the two of them, some half-formed thought of protection in her head. 

Then Billy comes back too, doing his best not to limp in front of his dad. “Max, go to the car,” he says. She listens, and Billy stays here, facing them. He ignores his dad yelling at him and looks at Nancy. 

“What are you doing?” she asks. 

“Making sure he’s mad at me,” Billy mutters, and it’s only a couple seconds longer before his dad stalks over and grabs him by the collar. 

“You need another lesson, boy? Respect for your elders?” he snarls, and Nancy feels her blood run hot. Fuck respect for this man. He doesn’t deserve it.

They hurry back inside, ice cold toes and fingers and noses that feel much better inside. Nancy crosses her arms tightly, steps directly in a puddle of melted ice, and stomps the rest of the way back to the family room. 

“What happened?” Mike asks 

“Bullshit,” Steve says, and heads into the kitchen. 

Jonathan looks at Nancy, and she kind of just shrugs, jerks her head at the kitchen. They both join Steve, who’s eating a cookie with the kind of anger reserved usually for… well, not for much. Steve Harrington doesn’t get angry a whole lot, in Nancy’s experience. 

“Steve,” Jonathan says. 

“What, dude,” Steve says. 

“He wants to know what happened,” Nancy says impatiently. “Their dad is the fucking worst and we need to figure out how to keep Max as far away from him as possible.” 

“And Billy,” Steve says. 

“And Billy?” Nancy frowns. “Why.” 

“Because he’s also in that house with that monster?” Steve says, with a deep frown line between his eyebrows. “What the hell, Nance.” 

Nancy lifts her shoulders up for a second, looks at Jonathan. “He’s been terrible to Max for as long as they’ve known each other, a recent change of heart isn’t enough to make up for that.” 

“He’s a human being, he doesn’t have to make up for shit to not deserve that,” Steve says, gesturing at the door. “And you saw what he did at the end.” 

“What, antagonize his dad more? Cuz he’s stupid?” 

“No,” Steve says patiently. “Antagonize his dad more so he’d forget he was mad at Max.”

Maybe. A very charitable interpretation, of course, but that’s Steve. And he likes Billy. “One good thing doesn’t mean we have to be on his side,” she says, but her stomach’s in knots. 

“You don’t have to be,” Steve says. “But I am. I’m going over there tomorrow, with or without you.” 

“That’s not fair,” Nancy frowns. “I don’t want you to go alone.” 

“Then come. You can come to,” he says to Jonathan. “If you want." 

“Come on,” Nancy rolls her eyes. “Really?” 

“I’ll come,” Jonathan says.

Both of them turn to look at him, completely shocked. Nancy feels a bit like she’s been punched. “You what?” she asks after a second of gaping. 

“I’ll go,” he shrugs, pretending it’s not a big deal. 

“Why?” she says.

“Because I think Steve’s right. He’s an asshole, and he has anger issues but he’s been trying to change.” 

“Or it’s an act,” Nancy says. 

Jonathan shrugs, in that little infuriating way he has. “Maybe. Don’t think so. My dad’s a lot like that, I know the type.” 

A little unfair. Nancy glares at him and picks up a cookie. 

“Nancy,” Steve says. “I know you feel bad for him.” 

“That doesn’t mean I’m ready to go be his superhero.” 

“Well, fuck Nance. Maybe he deserves one. That’s his dad, he’s lived with him the whole time. How much of a chance can you have, when that’s your role model?” 

“It doesn’t excuse-“ 

“Of course it doesn’t,” Steve shakes his head. “Yeah, nothing could. But it explains it.” 

“He almost hit you, the other night at the party.”

“I know. He didn’t.” 

He could’ve. Might as well have. Nancy was ready to chop his arm off rather than let him hit Steve. But he didn’t hit Steve, he hesitated. He stopped when she pushed him. 

She eats the cookie, and then another and mulls this whole thing over. She thinks about that violent man who tried to intimidate her, thinks about living with him, only him, being taught how to live by him, how to act. And she thinks about Billy hugging Max, hunching his shoulders and doing exactly what would piss his dad off most, on purpose. Knowing how dangerous it is. 

“So what’s your plan?” she says. 

“What do you mean?” 

“You’re just going to storm the house?” 

“No,” Steve says, though it’s clear that’s exactly as far as he had planned. 

“Should probably wait," Jonathan says. “For his dad to cool off. A couple days.” 

Steve doesn’t like that, but he nods tersely. “Yeah, okay. We should talk to the kids, make sure they’re okay.” 

They do that, they take everybody home, and at the end of the night the three of them end up at Jonathan’s with Joyce hurrying around doing something unclear and giving them knowing looks. Nancy’s not used to the parents knowing. “Are you sure this is okay?” she whispers when Joyce is out of the room.

“Yeah,” Jonathan says. “But my room is a wreck.” 

That earns him a pair of eye rolls, identical. That doesn’t matter. They all cram in his bed, arms around each other. Steve manages to get his cold feet on both of them, even though Jonathan’s in the middle. “I love you,” Steve murmurs to Jonathan. 

“Just because I took your side against Nancy?” 

“No, because you’re… solid,” Steve says. “You’re always here.”

“That’s what I’m good at,” Jonathan says, a verbal shrug. 

“Yeah, but you’re like. Really fucking good at it. And I appreciate it.”

Nancy leans over to look and sees Steve’s got his nose pressed against Jonathan’s cheek. Both of them have their eyes closed, so Nancy drops her head back on the pillow and cuddles in. 

“I love you too, Nance,” Steve adds. 

“I know you do.” 

“Me too,” Jonathan tells her.

“You know I love both of you more than you could ever love me,” Nancy says with a smile, and makes both of them laugh. 

“Yeah, we know,” Steve says. “Can we get some sleep now?” 

They sleep well together now, no more kicking in anyone’s sleep. Nancy half wakes up at one point with Jonathan lying on top of her, breathing in her ear. She moves, for less of a tickle, and falls back asleep. And when she wakes up in the morning, Steve’s foot is on her calf, warm for once. 

 

 

They use intel from the kids and their walkie talkies to find out when Billy’s father is out, so the three of them head over when it’s safe. 

“You have everything?” Steve asks Nancy for the millionth time. 

“Yes,” she says. “You watched us pack the bag.” She lifts the strap on her shoulder, reminding him it’s right here. Jonathan nods his support, and Steve knocks on the door. 

Max answers the door. Looks like she hasn’t gotten any sleep; she hasn’t been able to hang out with anybody, so Steve can’t say for sure what has happened during any of her time the past few days. When Steve leans down to hug her, she melts in his arms. “We still can’t leave,” she mumbles. “If that’s why you’re here.” 

“Nope,” Steve says after a second. “Not why. We’re just here to keep you guys company for a little bit. You think your mom would have any problem with that?” 

Max shakes her head. “She’s not here. It’ll be a while.” 

“Okay. Where’s Billy?” 

“In his room.” 

Nancy brushes past them all, so Steve follows her inside. The front door is unlocked, so she walks right in. The house is cold, like surprisingly cold. Steve thinks about Max wearing zip-up hoodies all the time and keeps walking, as quietly as he can manage. 

Three closed doors, one with a dent in it, and Nancy picks that one to push into. Steve hesitates at the door, sees Metallica posters on the wall, and follows her in. 

Billy’s in bed, asleep on his stomach covered in blankets. She barely sees him at first. The room smells like metal and sweat, and Nancy wrinkles her nose. “Well. This isn’t ideal,” she says, and Steve would kiss her. “Billy,” she whispers, and jostles his shoulder a bit. Billy makes an unintelligible sound and stirs a little, so she pokes him harder. “Get up.” 

Billy pushes up on one arm to rub his eyes and look at her. Only he can’t rub his eyes, because one side, there’s a mass of caked blood, and the other’s a black eye. So he whimpers, and falls back onto his side. “Wheeler?” 

“I’m here too,” Steve says. 

“Not exactly a surprise,” Billy grumbles.

“Shut up,” Nancy says. “We’re here to help.” 

“My old man won’t like that.” 

“He’s not here. He’s at work until five.” 

Billy sits up a little straighter, blanket falling off his shoulders, and Steve sees dark bruises and bloody scrapes, all over his chest and sides and back. There’s blood in his hair, and when he lifts his arm to scratch his nose, Steve sees a deep bloody gouge on his arm, like he tried to break a fall. His face is a wreck, too. Worse than when the two of them fought a month ago. 

“Something on my face?” Billy says dryly, looking between the two of them. 

“Kind of a lot of blood,” Steve answers. “You want to shower maybe?” 

Billy motions at his knee, the deep blackish color of the bruise there. It didn’t look like that a couple days ago. But luckily Steve’s not the only one here. Nancy crosses her arms. “What part of ‘we’ll help you’ do you not understand,” she says. 

He’d probably come back at her, usually. Nancy knows how to get under his skin and likes doing it, and Steve likes watching. But Billy just shrugs, gets up on his feet and kind of falls into the dresser. 

Steve should help. It’s more his job than Nancy’s; he’s taller, and stronger. But he’s also the only one who’s had the pleasure of getting their face broken by him, so Nancy lets Billy put an arm over her and Steve just watches, helps a little bit when they have trouble getting him into the bathtub.

“Have you been icing this?” Nancy asks. 

“No.” 

“Is it dislocated?” 

“No, Nancy, it’s not,” Billy sighs so hard, and Steve almost laughs because he empathizes with him. “Get out, I don’t need an audience.” 

“Today,” Steve says without thinking. 

Billy gives him a look, firmly between annoyance and amusement. “Right,” he says. “You mind?” 

They leave, stand in the hall kind of awkwardly for a second. “We did not think this through,” Nancy whispers, sounding mortified. 

“We did not.”

“But we’re here.” 

Steve nods. They’re here, because every time Steve thought it might be too awkward Jonathan assured them it wasn’t. And when Nancy reconsidered her stance on Billy, Jonathan talked her out of that too. 

Jonathan is currently hanging out with Max in her room, so they join him there. He’s sitting in her desk chair, learning about skateboard wheels or whatever, but Max stops talking when they come in. “Is… is he bad?” she asks them. 

“Not really sure what qualifies,” Steve says. “Pretty banged up.” 

“Yeah.” Max sits on the edge of her bed. She looks worried, center of attention and not entirely happy with it. “Dad was mad.” 

“You’re okay?” Nancy asks her. 

“Yeah, but. It’s not fair. It was both our faults, it’s not… it’s not fair,” she finishes in a whisper, looking at the floor. 

Nothing’s fair. It’s bullshit. “We’re working on it,” he says. 

There’s a bang from the bathroom, and Steve goes to take care of it, given that things could be nude. He knocks on the door. “Billy?” 

“Yeah.” 

“You need a hand?” 

After a second, Billy answers, “Yeah.” So Steve opens the door, shuts it behind him. Billy’s naked, stuck in the shower. Not a lot of mystery after that, everything his dad’s done is clearly visible, but Steve tries not to look anyways. He focuses on how Billy’s stuck, helps him out and then turns away while the other guy puts on boxers and pajama pants. 

“Thanks,” Billy says. His words sound different in the thick, humid air, and he won’t meet Steve’s eyes. 

“No problem. Are you… okay?” Steve asks, aware that it’s inadequate. 

Billy snorts. “Yeah, I’m fine.” 

“C’mon, man. No you aren’t,” Steve says. “I mean, it’s like. Normal, maybe. But.” Steve gestures at Billy’s general fucked up state of being. “That’s fine?”

Billy towels off his hair, breath catching visibly in his threat when he stretches the wrong way, and then he examines himself in the mirror. 

“Was he like this with your real mom too?” Steve asks, to get a reaction out of him. 

“What do you think,” Billy answers absently, looking at his jaw in the mirror as if that’s all he’s got to worry about. 

“Well she’s not here,” Steve says. “So seems like things didn’t go well.”

“Wow, you're real smart.” 

“Doing my best. You’re not making it easy, with Nancy. Refusing to talk.”

“I don’t have to talk to her just because you’ve decided to make me your charity case,” Billy says, making eye contact with Steve in the mirror. 

“You aren’t a charity case.” He met El, he knows about the Upside Down - all of that means a lot but Billy doesn’t seem to know that. “That’s why we’re here.”

“Yeah. Why are you here?” Billy asks. His eyes are on himself again. “So Wheeler can get her pity rocks off? Feel superior to somebody for the holidays.”

“Fuck you,” Steve says. “We don’t have to be here, but we are because…” 

“Because you and Nancy-“

“No, shithead. Because Jonathan. Because his dad’s a piece of shit like yours, but Jonathan’s really insistent that you aren’t the same brand of shit. That you changing. So we’re here, because you don’t have anyone else to be here and the three of us think you should have someone.” 

Billy turns to look at him for the first time, really looks at him. Evaluating if he’s telling the truth or not. “Why,” he finally says. “After all the shit I’ve done to you.” 

“Because,” Steve says, struggling for words. “Because, you’re… you’re a person. You don’t deserve this. Even though you were also a major piece of shit to Max. Alright?” 

While Billy’s trying to decide how to answer, Steve looks at some of the shit that’s been done to him, at the welt on his bicep and the scrapes on his shoulder blades. “Okay,” he says. “Is Max okay?” 

“She’s good. She keeps saying it’s her fault, though.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Do you know why, maybe?” Steve asks patiently. 

“Because,” Billy sighs. “She’s trying to take responsibility, she doesn’t want me to hate her.” 

“She doesn’t know you don’t hate her?” 

“Shut up, man. Really.” Billy pushes Steve towards the door. “What about when Susan gets back, you have a plan?” he says. 

“Yeah. The plan is to tell her we’re your friends, and to go from there. I’m pretty sure between me and Nancy we can charm a mom,” Steve says. 

“Not that Johnny kid?” 

“No. Yeah, he’s got zero charm. Love the guy, but.” Steve huffs. “He’s bad. Black hole of charm.” 

Billy almost smiles. “Okay.”

And that’s the detente they’ve reached. They hang out with Billy and Max until it’s dark and their mom comes home. Their father will be back in a matter of minutes, and Billy kind of pushes them towards the door until they agree to leave. “You gonna bring Max to the party on Saturday?” Steve asks. 

“Yeah, whatever, just get out of here.” 

“Ice your ankle,” Nancy says. 

“Have you ever not told people what to do, for like an hour?” Billy asks her, and Nancy rolls her eyes. 

“It heals faster if you stay off of it,” she says defensively. 

“Yeah. You’ve told me four times.” 

“We should go,” Jonathan says, his hand on Nancy’s back. “You can call us if you need anything.” 

“Yep.” 

Nancy manages to keep quiet for a grand total of thirty seconds, for the walk to the car. “We’re geniuses,” she says then.

Both of them smile at her. “We didn’t invent being friends,” Jonathan says. 

“We invented being friends with Billy,” Nancy says. Steve’s driving, Nancy gets shotgun and Jonathan leans up from the back seat. “He’s not that bad, really.” 

“Huh,” Jonathan snorts. “You’ve changed your tune.” 

“A little,” Nancy says. “As long as he doesn’t try and hit on me again.” 

Steve laughs. “Fingers crossed. Where am I taking you?” 

“Let’s go to your place,” Nancy says. “If that’s okay.” 

“Yeah,” Steve says after a second. “Mom and Dad don’t get back until Thursday. I can make dinner.”

“Treating us special,” Jonathan smiles. “I’m down.” 

“Me too.” Nancy’s smiling too, and she leans over towards both of them, kisses Jonathan’s cheek and then Steve’s. “I love you,” she says. “You’re so great.” 

“You’re great too,” Jonathan says quietly. “Both of you.” 

“You’re both weirdos, and nerds. But there’s nobody else I’d rather hang out with,” Steve says, his heart in his chest feeling both too big and not big enough. “I love you both,” he adds. 

Nancy makes him swerve a little dangerously by hugging him out of nowhere, and Jonathan ruffles Steve’s hair from over the seat back. “You’re a dork,” Jonathan says, and Steve feels warm. 

“Keep that to yourself,” Steve mumbles. 

Steve’s not stupid. He’s under no delusions that the three of them can keep up this equilibrium up forever, the three of them as a this perfect team. But while they are, he’s going to savor it. Having dinner around the table together, sitting watching a movie together and then heading up to bed together too. It’s perfect. Jonathan borrows some pajamas. Nancy packed her own. 

Steve takes the middle tonight. Nancy curls up against one side, Jonathan’s close on his other, and Steve’s bed doesn’t feel empty anymore. Even the whole house doesn’t feel empty when they’re with him in it. Both of them, not just Nancy. It’s different. It’s them, all three of them, and he knows it won’t last but he wants it to anyways. 

“This summer, we should do something together,” he says. “I know you’ve gotta work, Jonathan, but. Maybe we can figure out something together.” 

“Yeah,” Jonathan says. “For sure.” 

“Definitely," Nancy says, in the absent-minded way that means she’s already thinking about it. “We should get some walkie talkies like the kids have. Stay on the go.” 

“Right, cuz that’ll do wonders for our reputations.” Steve adjusts his arm around her. “Hey, been meaning to ask. You want us to come over early for the party, help set up?” 

“I would love that,” Nancy says immediately. “Wait. Us? Who’s us.” 

“Us,” Jonathan says, and Steve’s glad he doesn’t have to. “Your boyfriends,” he adds, and Steve’s heart almost stops. 

Nancy giggles, rolling a little closer. “Okay, okay,” she says. “I’d love to have your help. Thank you. The party’s at four, so come whenever you want before that.” 

“Maybe two?” Jonathan says to Steve. “I can pick you up.”

“That’d be great. Thanks.” 

“Sure, of course.” Jonathan looks over at him; Steve can feel his eyes without looking back. “Parties aren’t so bad when you show up with Steve Harrington,” he finally adds. 

“My main appeal,” Steve agrees easily, and they share a laugh. 

“You have many more,” Nancy murmurs, reading his mind. “But that’s a big one, for sure.” 

“The hair,” Jonathan says. 

“The heart,” Nancy says quietly. 

“Alright, shut up and turn off the light,” Steve says, “I’m tired.” And the back of his throat aches so hard he can barely breathe. He holds onto them particularly tight that night. 

 

 

It’s 4:30, and the Wheeler Christmas party is in full swing. Nancy means to be downstairs most of the time, babysitting the kids as promised, but ends up in the kitchen most of the time. To their credit, Jonathan and Steve help when they can, but when Mrs. Wheeler needs some more forks or Holly’s stuffed bunny or another platter of deviled eggs, it’s easier for Nancy to just do it. She’s trying to get out of the kitchen down to the basement and is almost about to leave when the phone rings. 

No one else is around to pick up, so Nancy does it, with a loud groan that goes unnoticed. “Hello?” 

“Nancy, it’s me.” 

It takes Nancy a second to place the voice, and only then she manages because most of the people she knows are here. “Billy?” she frowns. “How do you have our number?” 

“Your mom gave it to me.” 

“My _mother_?” Nancy demands incredulously. Her voice sounds high even to her ears. “When have you met my mother?” 

“I was over at your house.” 

“Ex _cuse_ me?” 

“The night all the shit went down around Halloween, I came over to try and find Max and I met your mom,” he says impatiently. 

“And she gave you her number?” 

“Yeah.” 

“How the hell did that happen?” 

“It’s a long story. Can we get into this later? Max is gone.” 

Nancy’s stomach drops. “Gone,” she repeats. “I thought she was with you, you guys are just late.” 

“Yeah, I’m late cuz I’ve been looking for her, she’s nowhere. Is everybody else here?” 

She’s already ahead of him. “Not Lucas and Dustin.” She leans into the doorframe to look out at the dining room, cranes her neck further to check the living room. “Their parents are here.”

“I’m on my way over,” he says. “Don’t, like. I think our folks are at your place. So don’t tell anybody.” 

She nods. “We’re in the basement. Hurry.”

“Yeah,” he snorts, and hangs up. 

Nancy abandons refilling the celery and runs down to the basement. “Everyone stop,” she says sharply. “Who knows where Max, Dustin, and Lucas are?” 

Everyone looks around at each other. No one knows the answer, but Will intuits it, in the sort of eerie way he has. “They’re missing,” he says quietly. “Aren’t they.” 

Nancy scarcely has to nod. “Fuck,” Steve says loudly, already fishing quarters out of his pocket to throw at Mike. “How do you know?” 

“Billy called.” Jonathan’s climbing the steps already, brushing past Nancy. She stops him with a hand on his shoulder. “Where are you going?” 

“I’m getting Mom,” he says. 

Steve kicks a table leg while Jonathan’s gone. “El,” he says. 

“I’m on it. Mike, I need a blindfold,” Eleven says firmly. She sits in front of the TV, ready to go. 

“I should’ve been keeping better track of them,” Steve says. 

“They’re not your responsibility,” Nancy says, but that doesn’t seem to reassure him. Everyone down here looks like they feel vaguely sick, so that won’t get much better for a while. 

Jonathan comes back with Joyce and Hopper, too. “Reinforcements,” he says. “I didn’t tell them yet.” 

“Tell us what,” Hopper says, looking around at the room. 

Joyce, though, already seems to know. “Where are the other kids?” she says. “We’re missing a few.” 

Nancy wishes she didn’t have to say it, but Steve’s pissed and Jonathan’s quiet. “We don’t know where they are,” she says. “And we don’t know if their parents should know or if they’d just freak out.”

“You have to tell their parents,” Hopper says. “Their kids are missing.” 

“Last time we found them in the woods by the Byers’ house,” Steve says. “We can probably find them again. El’s looking right now.” 

Hopper looks over at El, looks at the rest of them in turn and then at Joyce. “Who says they’re missing?” he finally asks. 

“Billy,” Nancy answers. “Technically he only said Max is missing, but they were missing before together.” 

“You should bring that spiky bat,” Joyce says to Steve. “And you’ll need flashlights, it’ll be dark soon.” 

“My dad has some big ones we can probably borrow,” Nancy says. “Out in the garage.” 

“I’ve got everything in the trunk of Jonathan’s car,” Steve nods. “Do we check the woods first?”

“Is there somewhere else they would go?” Hopper asks. 

At the top of the stairs, a couple of loud people pass in search of the bathroom and everyone in the basement falls silent. 

“School’s closed,” Mike says. He’s on the floor next to Eleven, who has a bandana covering her eyes. “Library is too.” He holds his walkie talkie up to his mouth and says, “Come in, anybody. Do you copy?” No answer.

“Not much of a radius on those,” Steve says. 

“They can’t be further than a mile,” Will nods. “And my house is further. That’s why I don’t have one.” 

“They could have their walkies,” Mike says. “To talk to each other, but we just wouldn’t hear them.” 

There’s a pause there, and El gasps, loud in the silence. 

“Do you see them?” Joyce asks, taking the last couple steps down and crossing the room to be at Eleven’s side. Hopper sits on the steps, and Nancy stays standing, unsure. 

Eleven rips off the blindfold after a few seconds, lets Joyce hold her. “Upside Down,” she says. “They’re there.” 

“How the fuck did they get there?” Joyce demands. 

“How do you know they’re there,” Hopper asks instead. 

“Pollen,” El says. “I see the pollen.” 

“How the fuck did they get there,” Jonathan says quietly. 

“All three of them?” Steve asks El. “They’re all there?” 

“Yes,” she nods. “Together.” 

“Fuck,” Nancy says, and then adds to Mike, “I’m not paying you for that one. No cash penalties during crises.” 

Mike considers. “I’ll allow it,” he says. 

“Then give me my fifty cents back, shitstain,” Steve says indignantly. “You’re just shaking me down, is that it?”

“Yep.” 

Nancy watches Hopper to see how worried they should be. The kids are probably just in the woods again, she tries to tell herself, but she watches him scratch his beard, fiddle with his pack of cigarettes and put it back away, and Nancy’s finding it hard to breathe. 

“I’m gonna go call in to the station,” Hopper finally says. “See if they were brought in or something.” And he makes his escape.

Nancy descends the final couple steps to join Steve and Jonathan. Jonathan puts his hand on her shoulder; Steve has his arms tightly crossed. “It’s going to be okay,” she says. It sounds empty. 

“It will,” Jonathan repeats more firmly. “We found Will, we’re going to find these kids too. I mean, we have El on our side too. We didn’t have her before.” 

“Maybe,” Steve says tightly, then corrects himself. “Yeah. We do. She’s great. It’s just…”

Someone starts down on the steps, and Nancy looks up to see it’s Billy. He looks mostly fine by now, trace of a limp and fading bruises on his cheek. He looks like he’s been caught wrong-footed by the sight of everybody down here. “This is not telling anybody?” he says to her. 

“When’s the last time you saw her?” Nancy asks.

“Hour ago, maybe. She left out her window, so I dunno.” Billy comes down the last couple steps, looks all around. Nancy feels second-hand exposure, from the way he’s examining the room. Mike’s fidgeting. 

“They’re in the Upside Down,” Eleven says, and everyone’s attention is on her. “How did they get there?” 

“Wait, what?” Billy says. 

“The lab?” Steve suggests, seemingly at the end of his rope. 

“Should we be talking about this in front of…” Joyce makes a face, and Nancy thinks she means Billy. 

“He knows,” Jonathan says. “He’s been there.” 

Hopper comes back in then, talking on his way down the steps. “No reports. You guys figure anything out?” 

“Trying to figure out how the kids got into the Upside Down,” Steve says. “Maybe the lab?”

“Lab’s shut,” Hopper shakes his head. “I watched her close it myself. How did he get there?” he says to Steve, jerking his thumb at Billy. 

“He’s got no idea,” Steve shakes his head. “We’re fucked.” 

“Well.” Everyone turns to look at Billy, who seems to want to be anywhere but here. “That’s not… exactly true,” he says. 

“Are you fucking kidding me,” Steve says flatly. 

“No, I’m not. Some fucking… thing pulled me there, I got away and ran back, there was like a hole in a wall and I went through it. That’s it. But look, I didn’t know you, I wasn’t about tell you my goddamn life story,” Billy says, every word forced. 

“A demogorgon?” Will asks. 

“I don’t know what that is,” Billy kind of snaps. 

“Face opens up like a flower, four legs, reptile looking thing,” Jonathan says when no one else does. “Bigger than us.” 

“Then maybe. Yeah.” 

Hopper comes closer, past everybody to wrap his arms around Eleven, who still looks shaken. Nancy sees Billy flinch when the Hopper passes him, and she feels a pang of inconvenient pity. “You did good, kid,” Hopper says. “You found them, that’s all we could ask for.” 

“No,” Eleven says. “I have to find them. If they’re there, and the shadow monster finds them, I have to protect them.” 

“No you don’t, you’re a kid.” 

“Doesn't matter,” El shakes her head, and struggles out of Hopper’s arms. “I stopped it before. I can stop it now.” 

“Not if we don’t know where we’re going,” Steve says. 

“There’s no we,” Hopper says. And then his walkie goes off, and there’s a big case, some big home break-in across town so he has to leave. Which means he has to reconsider his stance on this.

“Look,” he finally says. “Stick together in pairs. You’re lucky I know how dumb those kids are. They’re probably in those woods, and you’ve got a couple hours to try and find them. But if you don’t have them by the time I’m back, we’re notifying the parents.” 

Everyone nods, and Hopper leaves, after hugging Eleven and Joyce goodbye. 

“Are we all going?” Joyce asks. “I have my car, I can take a couple people.” 

Nancy wants to tell Mike to stay behind, but that wouldn’t be fair. It’s his friends who are missing. “Yeah,” she says. “We’re all going. Mike, can you get the big flashlights from Dad’s tool bench? I’m going to go change out of this skirt.” 

He nods, and Nancy runs upstairs to change into jeans. When she comes back down, the whole gang is at the door putting their shoes and coats on. “I’m going with Jonathan,” Steve says. 

“Me too,” Mike and El say in unison. 

“Can I?” Will asks his mom. 

“Sure, honey,” Joyce says after a second. “So I’ll take everybody else. You guys go on.” 

Nancy’s fine with that, until she realizes she’s got a ten minute car ride with Billy and Joyce to look forward to. That is not exactly enticing. 

“Billy?” someone says behind them. Not someone. Susan, Max’s mom. “What are you doing here?” she asks. 

“I’m, uh.” He looks at Nancy, who frowns back. How is this her responsibility? “We’re leaving.” 

“Your father doesn’t want you out of the house,” Susan says, and it seems like she’s trying to be firm. Nancy glances at Joyce, and sees she doesn’t look too impressed. 

“Ma’am, it’s an emergency,” Joyce says. “Not like. A major one, but a minor emergency. We’ll have him back as soon as possible. Come on,” she says, and puts her hand on Billy’s shoulder to usher him out. 

It seems like that’s going to work for all of ten seconds. They’re in the doorway, Nancy’s right behind them about to shut the door but then from behind them, they hear, “What the hell are you doing outside the house.” 

Billy freezes. He turns reluctantly, and looks his father in the eyes. “They need my help,” he says after swallowing hard. 

Nancy turns too, and there’s something fundamentally infuriating about seeing his dad standing in her kitchen. It’s hers, it’s not his to make petty and angry and small. 

“Don’t bring other people into your crap,” his father says, sounding unassumingly mild. “This is yours to face up to.”

“I’ve been at home all week,” Billy says. “But I have to go do this right now, it’s Max. She’s in trouble, I have to go get her.” 

It’s a bold play, and one Nancy doesn’t entirely agree with. Clearly he hopes for it to be some kind of trump card, but it doesn’t work out that way. “In trouble? How did this happen?” his dad asks, and there’s an edge to his tone that has Billy fall back a step. 

“Sir,” Joyce says, breaking the tension. “We really have to go.” 

“Zip it, lady,” he snaps. “I’ve heard all about your manufactured problems and crazy theories.” 

Nancy sees her mom walk in from behind them while he says that. At first, Nancy isn’t sure how she’ll react, but today it seems that Karen Wheeler will not be trifled with. “I’m going to have to ask you not to speak like that to my friend, Mister Hargrove. She was right that something was wrong last summer. Russian spies kidnapped her son. That’s not a crazy theory.” 

“Spies?” Mr. Hargrove repeats. 

“Mom, can we go?” Nancy says. 

“Of course, dear.” 

“Hold on,” Mr. Hargrove says. “My son isn’t-“ 

“I’m going with them,” Billy says, and looks at Nancy. 

She looks at her mom, at his parents, and says, “Deviled eggs and veggies are in the fridge, Steve brought in extra ice from the garage, and there are six tupperwares of cookies ready to go on top of the fridge.” 

Her mom smiles, and there’s a second of what feels like genuine understanding between the two of them, maybe for the first time that Nancy can remember. “Have a good time, honey. Go close the door, you’re letting all the cold air in. And bye, Billy.” 

Nancy turns around and pushes Billy and Joyce out the door, shuts it quick and hurries to the car behind them. Jonathan’s group has already left. It’s just the three of them, getting into Joyce’s car and starting the drive in silence. Billy’s in the front, Nancy in the back seat. 

“Russian spies, huh,” Billy finally says. 

“Cover story,” Joyce says. “For people who don’t know. Do you have a cigarette on you?” 

Billy looks over at her, tries a smile that looks kind of slimy. “I just might, for a special woman like yourself.” 

Nancy rolls her eyes. Joyce snorts. “Honey, I’m old enough to be your mother. Cut the bullshit and give me a damn smoke.” Billy, stunned, obeys and lights it for her, and Joyce cracks her window. “So that guy’s a piece of work,” she says. “Jesus.” 

“It’ll be fine,” Billy says, and adds as an afterthought, “Sorry.” 

“Nothing I haven’t heard before.” Joyce huffs a mouthful of smoke out. “For a month, it was ‘oh, Joyce Byers, thinks she can talk to her dead son through Christmas lights’ and nobody believed me. ‘Crazy old Joyce, with the lights and a hole in her house.’ It gets old. It does. But I got Will back, we got the monster out of him so. Who’s laughing now.” 

“Am I supposed to understand any of this?” Billy says.

“No,” Joyce says. “Shush.” 

Nancy’s finding it hard to hide her smile. “You think we could find the people to give him the same talk about El being a communist?” she says. “It would explain things, at least.” 

“A communist,” Billy repeats. 

“Yeah, there was a whole cover story.” Joyce sighs, make a vague hand gesture. “Not really supposed to talk about it, though I appreciate Karen’s support.” 

That reminds Nancy. “Why does my mother know your name?” she asks, leaning forward. 

Billy glances at her, looks away. “Like I said. We met.” 

“Oh my God.” Nancy looks resolutely out the windshield. “Don’t say anything else.” 

“I wasn't planning on it.” 

Joyce snorts again. “Smart move.” 

They get to the Byers’ house, and everyone’s already there. Steve has a backpack on and is telling Mike and El something very sternly. “Hey,” Nancy says, walking towards them with Billy and Joyce. 

“Hey,” Steve says. “Laying down ground rules for Eleven. Go inside, get a flashlight.” 

Nancy nods, heads inside with Billy close behind. “Why do you treat that girl like she’s an atomic bomb,” Billy says, half to himself. Nancy decides to remain diplomatically silent. 

They all regroup outside, in a loose circle. Will’s staying home with his mom, the thought of the Upside Down making him pale and drawn. Steve’s taking the lead. “Listen up,” he says. “Plan is, go back to Will’s fort and see what’s there. After that, if we need to split up, do you know who your buddy is?” 

El and Mike point at each other. Jonathan points at Nancy, which seems to leave Steve and Billy. “Good. Let’s go.” 

Nancy takes the lead with Steve. “Hi,” she says. 

“Hi.” 

“You doing okay?” 

“Yeah,” Steve says tightly. “I’m fine. It’s just. Again.” 

“I know. I’m starting to think it might never stop.” 

“Yep. And I’m starting to think I won’t go to college.” 

Nancy frowns, turns to look at him. “Are you kidding me?” 

“No.” He looks over at her. “No, I’m not going to leave you guys to deal with this shit without me. Come on.” 

“We can handle this,” she says. “Jonathan and I-“

“Right, but it’d be easier with me, right? So I don’t want to go anywhere. At least until we know how long this is gonna keep happening for.” He hits a bush with his bat, half-heartedly. 

“I don’t care if it’s easier,” Nancy says. “Steve. College has been a goal-“ 

“College is pointless if the world collapses, Nance,” he says. “If one of the kids, if we lost them in the Upside Down for good? If we have another Barb situation,” he says, and his voice and his steps falter, just for a second. “I couldn’t live with that.” 

Nancy shines the flashlight at him, then at the woods around them. “Okay,” she says after a second. “But you shouldn’t abandon your plans-“

“It’s my life,” he says. “I can do whatever I want. Including taking a gap year to save the world.” 

She smiles despite herself, drops it for the moment to listen to the woods around them. No unusual sounds, just them walking. Nothing moving in the underbrush or distant screams. That’s almost worse. 

They get to Will’s fort and Eleven ducks inside, feeling at the walls. “I could try and get in here,” she says. 

“No,” Steve says. “We’re minimizing the amount of time we spend there. As far as we know, the only way to get there is to find a portal. The kids can’t make one. That means they had to find one. They were probably looking for it around here when they were lost last time.” 

Billy points at something with his flashlight. “String again,” he says. 

“So they wouldn’t get lost,” Mike says. 

“Let me go first,” Eleven says. 

“No fucking way,” Steve says.

Nancy agrees. “No way.” 

“It makes sense,” Jonathan says. “Of the six of us, if we find a demogorgon, she’s the best equipped to deal with it. Somebody strong should be in the back, too.”

So they get a new order. Eleven, Steve, Nancy, Mike, Jonathan, and finally Billy. All following this piece of blue string through the woods, in the middle of the night. Nancy’s well and truly spooked. 

The string leads them to a tree, and they stop there, in front of it while Eleven kneels. They crowd around her and watch. “What is it?” Nancy asks. The bottom of the tree has some kind of soft spot, spongey and glowing red. There’s the sense of innate wrongness, like everything from the Upside Down, and dread is filling up Nancy’s chest. 

“A door,” El says. 

“We went through that,” Jonathan says to Nancy. “Remember? Last year?” 

Truth be told, she completely forgot. “A door,” she repeats. The string disappears into the soft spot. She can feel it on her face, in her hair, and she hates it. 

Mike hands El his walkie. “Use this to find them,” he says. 

El nods, very solemn. “I can go alone,” she says. 

“No way,” Steve says. “I’m coming with you. Got a couple tricks up my sleeve.” 

“I’ll come too,” Billy says after a second. 

“You don’t know what we’re facing,” Steve shakes his head. 

“I know enough. It’s my sister in there,” he says. 

Step-sister, Nancy wants to say, but she thinks that would be rude. 

 

 

Steve lets Billy come because privately, in the back of his head, he has the idea that if somebody else is gonna come it might as well be the one who’s a piece of shit. Less sad if he dies. But he doesn’t say that, and he doesn’t know if he really believes it. 

El pushes through first, stretching and molding the portal with her hands. When she uses her powers it feels almost like static in the air. Steve adores her, and fears her, and he wants this to be over. “This won’t close, will it?” he asks. 

“No,” she says. “Unless I close it.” She looks at everyone. “We’ll come back,” she tells the people staying. Then she ties the bandana Steve gave her around her nose, and crawls through. 

Steve’s next. He pulls out another bandana for himself, and one he tosses at Billy. “Put it on,” he says. He looks at Nancy, at Jonathan. “You heard the government experiment,” he says with a smile that’s a little bit fake. “We’ll be right back.” And he follows El through before anyone can see how sick he feels. 

The Upside Down looks an eerie amount like the normal world, with the addition of creeping vines, darkness, and white pollen floating in the air. The sky is red and cloudy, full of lightning and clouds and rumbling. He finds himself standing behind El, looking for protection. “Jesus,” he says, looking around. Doesn’t seem like she hears him. 

Billy crawls through and stands up next to them, looks all around. Steve wants to know what he’s thinking, but he doesn’t want to ask. 

“The string,” El says, holding it up. It stretches out away from them, towards the train tracks. So they follow it, the two of them flanking her. 

“I’m gonna kill Dustin,” Steve mutters, but he’s not confident he’ll even see Dustin. This place fills him with a sense of foreboding. He tries to think about good things, positive thoughts - Nancy and Jonathan and him, waking up together and in a car together and watching a movie holding hands, all three of them. But that has a limited effect on the unease. 

“You have any sense of when anything’s close?” Steve asks. 

“No,” Eleven answers. “None.” 

“Are you sure they’re this way?” Billy asks. 

“Yes,” she answers, holding up the walkie talkie. 

“You don’t need the blindfold?” 

Eleven ends the questioning with a look. “No,” she says. “Not here.” 

“Hold on,” Steve says. “You can’t just say that. Is it easier here?” 

She smiles at him, just a flash. “No,” she gives in. “It is not. It’s been getting easier.” 

“Practice, I guess,” Steve says. Just to say something. 

El takes his hand with the one not holding the flashlight for a moment, and says, “Don’t move.” 

The three of them freeze, and he hears a rustle in front of them. “Should we turn the light off?” he asks, and a demogorgon slinks into view. 

“Fuck,” Billy says. 

It takes several seconds to put together what happens next. El jerks her head to one side, almost unnoticeably, except that the monster’s head jerks too, to the same side, with an audible crack. And it falls down, completely dead. 

“Jesus Christ,” Billy says after a second. “What the fuck are you?” 

El wipes her nose, smear of something dark on her knuckle. “Be quiet,” she says. “There might be more.” 

After a minute or so of walking, Steve finds a clue. He steps in it, actually, and at first he thinks it’s some kind of slime or egg or whatever Goddamn disgusting horror this world has for him. But it’s worse than that. It’s a Three Musketeers. 

“Motherfucker,” Steve says. “Dustin’s trying to catch a demogorgon.” 

“Why the fuck would he do that?” Billy says. 

“Science,” Steve says. “Or something stupid like that. How many neck snaps do you have in you, El?” 

“As many as we need,” she answers. 

They keep walking. Another demogorgon approaches them from the left; Eleven clenches her fist at him, and his head seems to crumple. Steve’s heart skips a beat, does it again when she whips another into a tree. 

The walkie talkie crackles in El’s hand. She tries it, presses the button and says, “This is Eleven. Come in.”

It crackles again, and they hear a recognizable voice. “Eleven,” Lucas says. “Thank God. We’re in the Upside Down.”

“We know,” she says. “And you’re stupid. Don’t move.” 

The demogorgons are thickest around the kids. They’re holed up in the Upside Down version of Hopper’s cabin, and demogorgons are circling like a pack of wolves. 

Steve twirls his bat, takes a deep breath in through his nose and lets it out slower. “You ready?” he asks Billy. 

Billy has a bag of molotov cocktails, courtesy of Jonathan. He pulls one out now, and lights the fuse. “Yep,” he says, and nails a demogorgon in the face, setting it ablaze. 

Then one comes at Steve from the right, and he whacks it hard with the bat to give El the second she needs to snap its neck. So it’s like that for a while, fire and black blood and cracks and shrieks. 

Steve doesn’t even realize when it’s over, at first. He just knows he has a second to breathe, and then several seconds, and then he doesn’t have to hit anything else because they’re all dead. And the kids are coming out, running to them. 

Dustin slams into Steve for a hug, Lucas next, and that’s nice for all of three seconds until Steve sees Max trying to do the same and Billy shoving her to the ground instead, saying, “What the fuck were you thinking, you piece of shit.”

Steve’s not thinking when he just tackles him. If he had to put words to it, he’s fucking Goddamn furious and sick and feeling quite a bit of relief, somehow, too. Max almost died, and Billy’s gearing up to beat her ass for it? No fucking way. Not even for a second, while Steve’s here. 

Once he’s on the ground, Steve gets on top of him, hits him in the face, does it again and then hauls him up a few inches by the collar of his coat. “Don’t touch her,” he says, looking dead at him. “Are we clear?” 

“Crystal,” Billy says. His bandana has is lopsided now, falling off. He won’t meet Steve’s eyes until Steve drops him, and then he adds, “Feels good, though, doesn’t it.” 

“No,” Steve says. “It fucking doesn’t.”

“Bullshit,” Billy says. He’s breathing hard under Steve, making no effort to get away. “Of course it does.” 

“No, it doesn’t because I don’t have anger issues.” Steve pulls a hand through his hair, regrets it when he feels how sticky his hand is and then tries not to think about what that stickiness is. “And I don’t like hitting people. But you don’t fucking listen when I try and just say it.” 

“Fuck you.” 

“Fine,” Steve snaps. “Final warning, last chance. If you do something like that again, I swear to God I’ll use the bat.” He gets up off him then, and Billy stays there on the ground.

He looks fucking pathetic. He looks scared too, like maybe he’s staying there on his back because that’s what his dad has taught him to do. So Steve reaches out to help him up. Billy takes the offered hand and gets up. His nose is bleeding, and he spits blood. Which, good. Steve feels a flare of pride and anger in his chest. 

Eleven’s hugging Max, glaring at Billy. It’s eerie, with her red eyes and bloody nose. Billy can barely look back. “You gonna snap my neck?” he says to her.

“I would enjoy it,” Eleven says with open hostility. 

“El,” Max says. 

“Stop,” Steve says to everybody. “We’ll do this when we’re back.” He puts his backpack down to pull out a couple more bandanas and pass them to all the kids. “Cover up,” he says. “And stay close.” 

“The string will show us the way back,” Lucas says. 

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good idea,” Steve has to admit. “Let’s go quick, alright. If that fucking shadow thing finds us, we’re toast.” 

Eleven nods. Then she stumbles and falls to her knees. This has taken a lot out of her. Lucas helps her up, Dustin helps, and the two of them help her walk. That can’t really last, though. They need to move faster than this. 

“Come here,” Billy says gruffly. He gets suspicious looks from everybody in the party. “I can carry her,” he says defensively.

Yeah. That's a good idea. “I can do it,” Steve says. 

“You have a backpack. And you’re not as strong as me.” 

Steve bites his lip, looks at El and back at Steve. “El?” he says. 

She just nods again, which is a pretty bad sign. She looks tired, from what he can see of her without shining a flashlight straight in her eyes. “I still need to close the hole,” she says faintly. 

“Yeah. So c’mere.” Billy takes her up piggyback, arms under her legs and her arms around his neck. Eleven has her head down on his shoulder almost immediately too. It’s worrying, but Steve doesn’t say anything. He almost doesn’t want to jinx it. And whatever she says, it won’t change the situation they’re stuck in. Where the best option to carry a little girl is the guy who shoved another one down a few minutes ago. 

“You’re the one who said they were being stupid,” Billy says to Steve as they’re walking. 

Just because he’s talking to Steve doesn’t mean everybody else is not listening. Steve weighs his response. “Yep. I did,” he finally says. 

“But it’s so wrong when-“ 

“When you push a kid to the ground? Yeah.” Steve does a quick three-sixty to make sure no demogorgons are following them. “Believe it or not, it’s pretty cut and dry.” 

“We aren’t kids,” Dustin says. 

“Shut up,” Steve says. “You’re on thin ice.” 

“Wow,” Billy says. “Where’s the line, here?” 

Steve stops dead in his tracks and takes several seconds to do his best not to fucking scream. “Hitting kids, shithead,” he says, very loudly. “It’s not rocket science.” 

“So when I beat the shit out of you, that was okay?” 

“It wasn’t morally reprehensible,” Steve says. “Though obviously, I wasn’t a huge fan.” 

“At least we were there to patch you up,” Dustin says. 

“Yeah, we helped,” Max says, sounding a little shy. 

Steve looks at them. “He cracked two bones in my face and a bunch of thirteen year olds put a bandaid on it. Right, that was ideal. C’mon, we have to keep moving.” 

“We put Neosporin on it too,” Lucas says as they walk. 

“That, I am grateful for,” Steve says. “Infection would suck.” 

“This wasn’t stupid,” Dustin says. “We’re pursing scientific discovery.” 

“You went into hell to try and bring back one of the demogorgons after the last one you caught ate your cat,” Steve says. “And you left a portal open to do it.” 

“A small one,” Max says. 

“One that could easily turn into a big one,” Steve counters. “The shadow monster wants Will, you all know that, and he could’ve gotten to him this way. This was dumb.” 

Nobody argues. Steve almost feels a little bad, except that he doesn’t at all. He’s pissed. He wants something else to swing at. They keep walking instead. 

“Did anybody else notice that the trees didn’t catch on fire?” Dustin says meekly after several minutes of silence. “That was weird.” 

Steve doesn’t answer, because something in the air is changing, a sense of impending doom. “Move faster,” he says. 

It’s good Billy’s carrying El, because Steve wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace with a kid on his back. Billy manages though. But Steve doesn’t want to be grateful for anything from Billy right now. 

They make it back to the tree. Steve doesn’t have to tell anybody the kids go first; he and Billy keep an eye out while Dustin, Lucas, and Max crawl through. “Go,” Billy says then. So Steve crawls through next, comes out on the other side to Nancy and Jonathan and Mike all so glad to see him and everyone else. 

Billy comes last, with El hanging on tight around his neck, eyes shut. “Close it, El,” Steve says as soon as they’re through, and Eleven gets off of Billy, sits in front of the hole and stretches her hands out. The flashlights everyone’s holding flare brighter, as the boundaries of the hole in the tree sizzle and contract. 

“Oh my God,” Max whispers. 

Eleven jerks like something hit her, and strains harder. “He’s here,” she says quietly. She’s even paler, dark circles under her eyes, and the harder she strains the more progress they see. The hole finally seals, and Eleven slumps over. It’s Billy, the closest to her, who catches her before she hits the ground, though Mike pushes his way to her side. 

“Who’s he?” Steve asks. 

“Smoke monster,” Jonathan says. “That’s my guess. Let’s get everyone back, we need to call Hopper.” 

“Did you guys run into any trouble?” Nancy asks, looking at the bruise and swelling on Billy’s face, at Steve’s bat covered in demogorgon guts. 

“You could say that.” Steve struggles to his feet, lets Nancy wrap her arms around him. Jonathan does too, and he stands there, letting the two of them hold him up. 

“But it went okay?” Jonathan says. 

“I don’t even know, man.” Steve kisses Nancy’s cheek. He’d kiss Jonathan’s too, if it was just them. “Let’s get out of here, El needs to eat something and rest.” They separate, and he finds Billy’s already holding her again and he’s got Max’s hand too. He starts walking with the two of them, and Steve watches for a second, to make sure Max isn’t being dragged. Seems like she isn’t. 

Mike’s arguing with Dustin and Lucas, following Billy and the girls, so Jonathan, Steve, and Nancy bring up the rear. Steve thinks to himself that he’s had enough of these woods and walking through them for probably his entire life. 

“What were they doing?” Nancy asks. 

“Trying to catch a demogorgon,” Steve says, and when she gasps, he huffs out a breath. “I know. I’m so pissed at them.” 

“Hopper will take care of it,” Jonathan says. “Fear of God and everything.”

“Billy was gonna kick Max’s ass, though,” Steve says after a second, quiet so only the two of them hear it. “Literally.” 

“What’d you do?” 

“I punched him. In the face, twice.” Steve pulls at his bandana, down around his neck, and wipes some gunk off his face. “And told him if he did it again, I’d come at him with the bat.” 

Nancy sounds surprised. “Well.” 

“What?” 

“Nothing, it’s just I thought you liked him.” 

“I do. Sometimes,” Steve shrugs. “I get tired of having to explain the basic tenets of like. Being a good person.” 

Jonathan nudges him with his shoulder. “You’re doing great, evidently,” he says. “I mean look at him.” Carrying El, talking to Max quietly. Now Billy’s hand is on Max’s shoulder. Looks protective. 

“I dunno,” Steve says. “I don’t know how long it’ll last. Or how long I’m comfortable playing like… red light green light with this shit.” 

“It’s going well,” Nancy says reassuringly. “He’s acting different. We’re making progress. Just give it a little time. Look, we’ll get you home and in dry clothes and cleaned up and you’ll feel better.” She takes his hand, lacing all their fingers together. On his other side, Jonathan takes Steve’s bat from him and does the same. 

“You found them,” Jonathan says. “You did it right. And you landed a punch on Billy, that’s pretty good.” 

Steve doesn’t feel good about it. He chews on his lip; it tastes kind of gross and he doesn’t want to think about why. “He tried to convince me it was fun to get in a fight and kick his ass,” he says. “That it felt good.” 

“Well that’s an insight,” Nancy says after a second. 

“What do you mean?” 

“To how he thinks.”

“Yeah,” Jonathan says. “It feels good when he gets to hit somebody, instead of getting hit himself. Maybe he didn’t think it was a big deal when the two of you were in a fight before. He does do this stuff all the time, we already know that.” 

The two of them keep him grounded, a hand on either side, and Steve is so intensely grateful. He’s going to tell hem he loves them again, soon. “I don’t really care,” he says. “I think I’m just… done. I don’t like fights.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jonathan laughs, and Nancy squeezes Steve’s hand. 

The Byers’ house never looked so good. Golden light coming out all the windows, solid walls and no demogorgons. And Joyce, when they open the door, is right there with hot cocoa and coffee. 

It’s all a busy rush then. Steve’s fussed over and cleaned off, El is covered in blankets and fed, everyone’s getting dried off and warmed up and comforted. Jonathan gets Steve a new shirt, one not stained with blood, a flannel over it, and a big wool blanket to wrap around his shoulders, and then he sits Steve down on his bed with a mug of steaming coffee and sits next to him. Nancy’s out with El and Mike, taking care of her. It’s where Steve should be too, but he’s feeling curiously shaky and exhausted. 

“You don’t have to be in charge all the time, y’know,” Jonathan says. “You did an incredible job. You protected these kids. You can take a break.” 

“What’s a break?” Steve says dryly. 

“It’s you, drinking that coffee and telling me what record you want me to put on,” Jonathan says. 

Steve looks over at Jonathan. “Wouldn’t mind some Talking Heads,” he finally says, a smile on his face. 

“Awesome.” He gets up and puts a song on, one Steve doesn’t know by name but he’d guess has some kind of meaning to it. That’s how Jonathan works. 

The front door slams shut, and Jonathan jumps next to Steve. They hear Hopper’s voice, low and angry, and Steve leans over to tilt his head against Jonathan’s for a second. “He can get kind of scary when he’s mad,” he says. 

“Yeah,” Jonathan says. “Not really, though.” But he stays there too, with his head against Steve’s for another couple moments. Until Billy comes to the door, leans on the doorjamb and has a sip of his coffee. 

“Hey,” Billy says. 

“What’s up,” Steve and Jonathan say in unison, leaning away from each other. 

“The police guy’s reading the kids the riot act,” he says. Steve doesn’t want to read between the lines here, but it’s impossible not to understand the implications. Obviously Billy doesn’t want to be in the room for that, and obviously it’s because his dad. 

“Come on in,” Jonathan says. “I think Nancy…” She appears behind Billy in the doorway, pushes inside to sit at the desk. “…is on her way,” Jonathan finishes. “Well.” 

Billy looks at them, then looks around the room. Jonathan begins to fidget with his space under scrutiny, and Steve nudges him with his knee. “What happened while we were in the Upside Down?” he asks to distract him. 

“Nothing,” Jonathan says. “It was quiet. Can’t believe Nance and I forgot about that tree, though.” 

“There was kind of a lot going on,” Steve says. “Demogorgon in the hallway and everything.” 

“Yeah, and you swooping in to save the day,” Nancy says. 

Steve rolls his eyes, intimately aware of Billy listening to this. “You’re exaggerating,” he says. “And that’s old news. We have to figure out tonight, though.” 

“What do you mean?” Nancy asks. 

“You have to go home, your mom’s gonna be looking for you and Mike, and she’ll call Joyce if it goes much longer. Dustin and Lucas’s parents will be suspicious pretty soon, they’ve gotta go back.” 

“Your parents are home, aren’t they?” Nancy says. 

Steve blinks. “Uh. Yeah. But they won’t notice, I’m fine.” 

“Oh,” Nancy says, trying to sound non-judgmental. “And Billy told his parents Max was in trouble and kind of ran away from them, so they’ve gotta get back too.” 

Billy takes a sip of coffee, looking at Jonathan’s posters and not them. “I’m not in a hurry,” he says. “Max isn’t either.” 

Jonathan leans against Steve, crosses his legs on the bed in front of them. “Cool,” he says, trying to make it less awkward that Steve and Nancy aren’t answering and failing completely. They can hear Hopper still going, quieter now. Steve would almost feel bad for them, if he wasn’t ready to go out there and lay into them himself. 

“Were we this stupid as kids?” he says to no one in particular. 

“I think the stakes were lower,” Nancy answers. “Not world-ending.” 

“Definitely not,” Jonathan answers. “But still. This was unusually dumb.” 

“So how exactly do you think you could stop them from doing this again?” Billy says. “Since you seem to have strong opinions on that.” 

“Right,” Steve says. “Strong opinions being that kids don’t learn from getting the shit beaten out of them. Not like you prove exactly that. You haven’t changed after all the shit your dad’s done.” 

Billy looks away, and Steve thinks he’s pissed until Billy looks back with something like a smile on his face. “Yeah,” he says. “Okay. Good point. What are you gonna do?” 

The other three of them exchange a look. “Let Hopper scare the shit out of them and then talk to them about why they did it,” Nancy answers. “Probably keep a closer eye on them, I guess. For a while. I’d want them to be grounded, but we aren’t telling their parents about it. So.” 

“And that’s it,” Billy says. 

“Yeah,” Jonathan says. “That’s it. Worked alright with all of us.” 

“Guess so,” Steve says. “Not a whole lot we can do besides that.” 

Billy nods, pretending to understand, and drains the rest of his coffee. “We should probably go back tonight, though.” 

“Just like that,” Steve says. “Just go back to whatever’s waiting there.” 

“Are you honestly getting superior right now?” Billy says, rubbing his forehead. “About this?” 

“No, dude, I just don’t think it’s our only option.” 

“It is. I’m the one who knows, and it is. Stop being so smug.” 

“He’s not, he’s being protective,” Nancy snaps, and Steve wants to fucking die. That shouldn’t be goddamn announced. He pulls the blanket tighter around himself and has some coffee. Nancy. God. He’s gonna be grumpy about her for like, years. 

Eleven comes in the room, thankfully, and that breaks the tension. She’s wrapped in a very large blanket, and there’s some color in her cheeks. “Hey champ,” Steve says. “Come here. You kicked serious ass tonight.” 

She smiles, struggles to get on the bed with all the blankets and scoots up to sit against Steve’s side. There’s an awful lot of blanket between them, and hers is very warm. Steve turns to look at her, at the circles under her eyes and something that looks like on her eyelids. “Are you okay?” Steve asks her. “Really. How do you feel?” 

“Tired,” she says. “Cold.” 

“Because you lost so much blood,” Nancy says from the desk chair. 

“Yes,” Eleven agrees. “And because I showered.” Her curls are damp. She sneezes, and then snuggles in against Steve further. “Hello Billy,” she says then, just short of openly contemptuous. 

“Hey,” he says warily, takes a step back. “You gonna kill me yet?” 

“No,” El says. “It will give me a headache. And you carried me. Thank you, by the way,” she adds. 

Billy nods, making an awkward face. “Sure. Uh. Can I ask you something, though?” 

“Yes.” Eleven reaches out for Steve’s coffee, and he lets her have it out of surprise more than anything else. She has a sip, and gives it back. 

“You have those powers over there only?” 

“No,” she answers cheerfully, and puts a hand out. She lifts the needle of the record player and lifts the record off the spindle, up into Billy’s hands. He takes it with great caution, and El puts her hand down. 

“Be careful,” Steve says, watching El wipe blood from her nose onto her hand. “Don’t exhaust yourself.” 

“I’m fine,” Eleven says. “It’s small.” 

Billy puts Jonathan’s record back in its sleeve carefully, flips through the crate of them slowly. “Good taste,” he says, glancing back at Jonathan.

“Thanks.” 

Steve finds himself holding his breath, waiting for some kind of blow up. Billy breaking something, on purpose or on accident, or making an asshole comment; just something. He’s not sure what. But nothing happens besides Eleven falling asleep. 

“Nancy?” Joyce says, coming down the hall and standing in the door. “Hi. Alright, so your mother just called, I told her Mike’s sleeping over, since he and Will are asleep in Will’s room already, and same for you, right? It’s getting late, and you guys are exhausted.” 

“Uh, I can,” Nancy says, looking over at Jonathan. “If that’s okay. But we have to take the kids back still.” 

“I can do it,” Joyce says. “They’ll be less mad if it’s me, and I can have some bullshit story about insisting they stay for dinner.” She shrugs. “It’ll be fine.” 

Except for Billy and Max. That won’t be fine at all. “Okay,” Nancy says anyways. “Thank you.” 

“Of course, honey. We’ll talk more after Hopper’s done giving the kids the scare of their lives,” she says. “Anyone need anything? Cocoa?” Everyone shakes their heads. “Okay. You can smoke if you crack the window,” she tells Billy, and leaves. 

“Well,” he says, raising his eyebrows, and heads over to do just that. He pulls out a cigarette and lights it. 

It’s only a few moments before Jonathan says, “You have another one?” 

Billy pulls his pack out again, and Jonathan gets up to join him at the window. A high stress night. In his absence, Nancy takes his spot at Steve’s side and hugs him tight. “Your mom’s the best,” Steve says. “Out of all the moms.” 

Jonathan smiles. “Yeah, she’s alright. She didn’t put up any lights this year.” 

“Yeah,” Steve says. “Thank fucking God. I’d be in the middle of a panic attack right now. Jesus. Christmas is gonna be a minefield.” 

“Christmas,” Billy repeats flatly. 

Jonathan looks at all of them, and they silently make a mutual decision that he’s gonna tell him. It was his brother. “Will, when he went missing. He didn’t know how to tell us where he was. Mom found out he could use lightbulbs, he could light ‘em up from the other side, so she covered the house in Christmas lights.” 

“There was a seasonal Ouija board on the living room wall,” Nancy says. 

“And the lights were everywhere when that fucking demigorgon came,” Steve huffs out. 

“What’d you do?” Billy sounds actually interested, and calm. 

“Steve beat the shit out of it with that bat, and then we torched it,” Jonathan says. “Out there in the hallway.” 

“Your mom likes trashing her house,” Billy mumbles. 

“She likes the world not ending,” Jonathan says. “So she’ll do whatever it takes. You saw the tunnel drawings.” 

“Yeah,” Billy says. “I think. I was pretty wasted.” 

Nancy looks at Steve, and Steve looks at nothing. He hears the plate breaking again, feels his jaw crack. And ‘pretty trashed’ is enough of an excuse for Billy to feel like he did the right thing. And suddenly, the hot rage he felt in the Upside Down zings through his veins and Steve can’t stay here any longer. 

“Steve,” Nancy says in alarm when she feels him struggling out of his blanket cocoon. 

“I’m fine. Don’t come after me,” he adds over his shoulder, and heads out the back door. It’s cold. He’s in a flannel shirt and jeans, and it’s December. But he stands outside and still feels like he’s too hot. 

He leans against the wall, arms crossed, and picks at the frozen ground with his big toe. The temperature makes it hard to think about anything, demogorgons or ass kickings or anything else that bubbles up when this shit comes out. Barb. Demodogs running past him and Dustin and knowing even one could kill him if it wanted, kill them both. The only reason they got in there was because Billy beat the shit out of him and the kids could steal a car. But he’s not thinking about any of that. 

The door opens, sending a waft of warm air, and it’s Billy coming out, with his jean jacket and fucking boots and Steve swears he’s going crazy from his time in the other side because he could swear Billy’s shirt is red for a second, instead of the green it actually is. 

“You’re actually the last person I want to see right now,” Steve says. He’s grateful Billy stays out of arms’ reach. 

“Yeah, I bet,” Billy says, another cigarette between his lips already, and he lights it. “So why’d you run out here.” 

“I’m not talking about it.” 

Billy throws a glance at him. “Yeah, you are. You wanna know why?” 

“Dying to,” Steve says, with sarcasm so hard it hurts is throat. 

“Because we’ve both tried it my way.” He motions at his blooming shiner. “And that didn’t work out. So we’re gonna try it your way.” 

That’s a peacemaking gesture, and one Steve rejects. “Go for it,” he says sharply, cuz his jaw is feeling awfully tight.

Billy lets out a mouthful of smoke, watches it curl in the air. “I crossed a line,” he says. “I shouldn’t have gone after you like that, it was…” 

This is painfully inadequate, Steve wants to say. “Psycho?” he says. 

“Yeah,” Billy agrees. “It was. And I’m not gonna do it again.” 

“Really? Cuz you’ve almost hit me half a dozen times after that.” 

“Yes really, cuz I don’t know what else to fucking do when you’re pissing me off,” Billy bites back. “Up on your high horse telling me I’m shit. I know I am, alright.” 

Steve feels a surprising pang in his chest. He doesn’t say anything.

“I know,” Billy repeats. “And I shouldn’t have gone after the kid. Lucas. But Max liked him, and she was lying to my dad and I was getting all the shit for that, alright? I was pissed. But.” He’s halfway through the cigarette, almost finishes it before he finishes his sentence. “I’m sorry,” he finally says. “I apologize. I get it, it’s a big deal.” 

Steve doesn’t know what to say even still. He feels his breathing slow down when he didn’t even know it was fast, and he starts to realize it’s cold. Fucking cold. "Okay," he says. "Good. Thanks." 

Billy nods, takes a final drag and holds it while he crushes the butt under his heel. "Will you come back inside now? Instead of freezing yourself to death?" 

Steve shakes his head. The cold still feels good, even though his heart rate is slowing down and the flashbacks less distinct. "I need a second," he says. 

Billy frowns, comes over next to him and puts the back of his hand on Steve's forehead. He's so hot it almost burns, and Steve twists away. "You're freezing," Billy says. "Come on." 

"I said no." 

“Then you're lucky I know better." Billy bundles Steve through the door, back inside, and his hands on Steve's arm feel searing. The air inside is almost suffocating, for a second, but then Steve realizes it feels good. Like pushing on a bruise. He takes a deep breath in, and then starts shivering. "Yeah," Billy says, watching him. "Thought so."

"Shut the fuck up," Steve tells him, but he's developed a stutter. Takes a second to get the words out, and by then Billy's gone to the stove, where the kettle's on, and poured hot water into a mug. He mixes it, brings it back to Steve and gives it to him, but he doesn't let go either. Probably for the best, since Steve's shaking so hard he'd spill it for sure, without Billy's steadying hand. The mug's steaming, absorbing the cold from Steve's fingertips and leaving him feeling tingly. And they just stand there, Billy watching Steve and Steve watching the mug of cocoa. 

Finally Steve manages a sip, pulls the mug out of Billy's hand and manages to hang onto it. "A lot h-happened," he says. "Last year, this year. It's not just about us fighting." 

"Figured. King Steve hanging out with a bunch of shithead kids doesn't just happen." 

Steve rolls his eyes. "That is the stupidest nickname in probably the universe. Let it die. I'm not king of anything, I did keg stands and bullied people." He takes another sip, feeling more like himself by the second. "Jonathan and Nancy?" 

"His room." 

"Hopper done yelling at the kids?" 

"Winding down. Mrs. Byers took a turn."

"Fuck, maybe I should. To make triple sure they'll never pull this shit again." 

Billy toes off his shoes by the door, leaving them in a pile of melting snow. "I think they get the message," he says, uncharacteristically timid, and Steve's thawed out enough to notice. 

"Come on, Hargrove," he says, and heads back into the bedroom. 

Jonathan and Nancy stop talking the moment he sees them, but Steve knows them better than he knows himself. "I'm fine," he says. "You didn't do anything, I don't need anything, and Billy and me are cool. Okay? Does that cover everything?" 

Nancy seems a bit put out. Jonathan smiles. "You're good." 

"You're predictable," Steve tells him, but he takes his blanket and goes to sit next to Jonathan on the floor beneath the window. Billy follows, drags over the desk chair and sits in it. Nancy's on the bed with Eleven now, so they're in a rough circle. "I've been having flashbacks while I'm awake," Steve says, even though he'd rather say nothing. 

"Me too," Jonathan answers without missing a beat. 

Nancy nods. "I've seen Barb almost every day since she died." 

"Who the fuck is Barb?" Billy asks, and Steve would almost laugh. 

"Nancy's best friend," Jonathan answers. "The demogorgon got her. At Steve's house, out by the pool." 

Steve tastes bile. Nancy looks pale, he would bet she does too. "Barb," he agrees. "And the tunnels, when I was trying to keep the kids from being eaten by like, forty of the things. And the fire, and just. It wasn't as bad as my kid brother being possessed-"

"Debatable," Nancy interjects. 

"-but I keep thinking about it." 

"That's normal," Jonathan says. "Everybody does it." 

"Yes." Eleven sits up, rubbing her eyes. "Normal. I dream about the Mind Flayer. And my sister. And Papa." 

Nancy looks at Eleven like she wants to adopt her. "If he wasn't already dead I'd kill him," Nancy says, as some kind of compromise. 

"I know." Eleven gives Nancy a rare real smile. "You say that every time." 

"I must mean it." 

"You've got a sister, huh," Billy says. He's not very excited by that prospect. 

"Yes. Her name is Kali." 

Steve narrows his eyes. "You have a sister named after a war goddess?" 

"I don't know," Eleven shrugs. 

"It's not like there's a different Kali, though," Steve's beginning to argue, but then the three runaways come in the room. "Hey," he says instead. Max comes to stand by Billy, her arms crossed. 

"Hi," Dustin says, and Lucas waves. "So Mrs. Byers and Hopper are taking us home. Sorry we made you rescue us in the Upside Down."

"It's fine," Steve answers without totally meaning it. "Thanks. We'll see you soon, probably."

"Thank you, for real," Lucas nods. "We'll pay you back. Stay safe."

"You too,” Nancy says, when Steve doesn’t say anything. 

"Come on, kids," Joyce calls, and the two boys leave. 

Steve shuts his eyes, and Jonathan puts his arm over Steve’s shoulders. “You sure your parents won’t be upset if you stay?” he says. “You could call.” 

“No,” Steve shakes his head. “Not a big deal.” 

“What’s the deal there, Harrington,” Billy says, and his tone is the one that wants to piss Steve off just to watch him. “You even have parents?” 

“Steve’s parents are distant,” Nancy explains. 

Steve groans and drops his head onto his arms. He could scream. “Nancy loves to read aloud, between the lines,” he says. “Has anyone noticed that?” 

“I have,” Billy says dryly. 

“Oh, please,” Nancy sighs. “I’m just helping. None of you say what you mean.” Everything’s silent for a second, and Steve keeps his eyes closed. He’s comfortable. “Max, how you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” Max says. “I’m really sorry, Steve. I know you’re mad and I understand, it was stupid and we never should’ve done it.” 

Steve looks up at her, feeling suddenly sleepy. Billy’s looking at Max too, thoughtfully quiet. The house feels muffled and soft. “It’s okay,” Steve says. “I know it won’t happen again. I’m just tired. Trying to think of what to do about you two.” 

“Not your job,” Billy says to him without looking at him. 

“I still say we use Hopper,” Jonathan says. 

“It is my job,” Steve says. “Because nobody else seems particularly interested in making sure your dad doesn’t kill you.” 

“I don’t need pity,” Billy shoots back. 

“Yeah, and I don’t need something else to do, but that’s the way the night’s going, Billy. Take the help and shut up,” Steve says, with a little bit of a smile. Because they’re arguing, and he doesn’t feel the white-hot fear he’s been getting used to feeling with Billy. The apology made a real difference, somehow. 

The room is collectively holding their breath, waiting for Billy’s answer. “You can’t help,” Billy finally says. “Don’t waste your time.”

“Yes we can,” Nancy says firmly. “There’s always something we can do.” Max crosses the room to sit next to Nancy on the bed, and Nancy tucks her close to her side. 

“No, there isn’t,” Billy says. “I’ve been through this before. When he was married to my mom.” 

Max looks up at him in surprise. Steve glances at Billy too, to judge if he should keep asking. Jonathan makes the decision faster. “When was that?” he asks. “California?” 

“Yeah, California.” Billy’s twisting one of the rings on his fingers, fiddling. “Mom tried to run, he dragged her back. Twice. Second time he almost killed her. I’m not going through that. Even if he doesn’t catch me, he’ll be pissed at Max and her mom. Can’t do that.” 

He hasn’t ran, so he’s been thinking about that. Considering them. And Steve has all the reassurance there that he needs right now to get invested. “So you don’t run,” he says. “What else can we do?” 

“Threaten him with a bat?” Max says in a shaky voice. 

“He’ll just wait till we don’t have it,” Billy shakes his head. 

Steve looks at Nancy, both their minds racing. “Something that won’t go away,” she says. “Protects all three.” 

“Not us, we don’t scare her,” Steve shakes his head. “El?” 

“We can’t,” Nancy says. 

“Guys,” Jonathan says. “Seriously. Hopper.” He looks around at everyone, who’s suddenly paying attention to him, even El who’s silently observing. “We don’t have to scare anybody. Hopper can do it. He’s an adult, he’s bigger than Billy’s dad, and he’s chief of police.” 

“It’s a small town,” Steve nods, starting to put it together. “Yeah. He could arrest your dad, but more importantly he’d embarrass him. Does your family want to move?” 

“No,” Max answers, looking at Billy, and he doesn’t correct her. 

“They’re out of money,” he says grudgingly, after a second. 

“Then they have to make a good impression here, and keep it,” Jonathan says. “And if the chief of police lets your dad know that we don’t like scumbags around here, not a lot he can do.” 

Steve makes eye contact with Nancy and then Billy. It looks like Billy’s actually considering this, chewing on his lip. He pulls out his pack of cigarettes and shakes one out, fiddles with it. “If this goes wrong,” he says, “it’s not just…” 

“We understand high stakes, dude,” Steve says. 

Billy knows that. “Right,” he says. “But.” 

“My dad left town,” Jonathan says. “And Hopper didn’t even talk to him directly. He just asked my mom if she was okay.” 

“I’ll ask him,” Steve says. 

“I want to be there,” Billy says immediately. 

“Okay. We’ll talk when he’s back.” 

Billy nods, stands up and cracks the window again to light up. “Tonight?” he says. “He’ll be mad about what I did at the party.”

“Yeah,” Nancy says. “And we’re not letting you go home to that.” 

Looks like Billy wants to be irritated by that, but he just nods a little, looks out the window. “You aren’t,” he says. 

“No, we aren’t,” Nancy answers firmly. 

Max speaks up, looking at everyone, Billy last. “Do you… you think this would will work?” she says. 

“Yeah,” Billy answers. “Maybe. I’ve seen these three do a lot of impossible shit.” 

While they’re waiting for Hopper and Joyce to get back, Steve goes to raid the kitchen. Now that all the adrenaline is out of his system, he’s starving. The only problem is he’s never cooked in the Byers’ kitchen, and he doesn’t know where anything is. 

“Need some help?” Jonathan asks, walking in. 

“Yeah. Sorry. I’m trying to find something to eat. Is that presumptuous?” Steve makes a face. “Sorry.” 

“No, it’s fine. What do you want? I could make eggs and toast.” 

“I can make it,” Steve says, and when Jonathan persists in getting out the food and dishes, Steve has to bodily push him out of the way. “No, seriously, Jonathan. I can do it.” 

“I don’t mind helping.” 

Steve looks at him with a sigh, and then kind of accidentally keeps looking at him, in his eyes. “I love you,” he says. “You’re so… nice.” 

“Yeah,” Jonathan smiles crookedly. “I guess.” 

Nobody’s in the room, just them. Steve looks around, to double check, and he says, “Hey. Do you, uh. We’ve been kinda dancing around this for a while.” 

Jonathan pushes back into place at the stove, answers Steve’s indignant look by saying, “Hey. If you’re gonna talk, I’m gonna cook. You don’t look so good. What have we been dancing around?” 

“We both love Nancy.” 

“Yeah…” 

“But you and me.” 

Jonathan glances at him. “Don’t tell me you’re having a gay panic.” 

Steve snorts. “Not exactly.” 

“It’s not, like. It’s not dangerous, is it? If you were.”

“No, of course not. My parents barely see me as it is, and they voted for Mondale only because there wasn’t someone more liberal.” Steve hesitates before continuing. “And my sister’s gay. So. It’s totally safe. Safe for you too, right?” 

“Definitely.” There’s a long silence, and Jonathan drops butter in the pan that starts to sizzle. “So you and me,” he finally says. 

“Yeah. Do you…” Steve worries at his lower lip. “Okay. I’ll just say it. You interested in, like. Making it more of a thing?” 

“More how?” 

“Like maybe we’re not just Nancy’s boyfriends, y’know?” Steve says, watching Jonathan’s hands because he’s not brave enough to look up at his face. “If that’s something you’d like to try. I really like you, and you’ve been so cool, while I’ve been kinda going crazy.” 

“You aren’t crazy,” Jonathan says. “And I’d like to. Well, to make it official. We’ve kinda been doing it anyways.” 

“Yeah. And we probably can’t tell anybody, besides Nance.” 

“No, yeah. It’s still Hawkins. But when it’s just us.”

Steve leans in. “Hey,” he says. Jonathan looks over at him, reads his body language, and smiles before he leans in for a peck on the lips. 

Of course, the second they do that, the front door opens. “Hey kids,” Joyce says. “How’s it going?” 

“Fine,” Jonathan says, impressively calm. 

Hopper comes in after her, kicking the snow off his shoes on the doorframe and then coming inside. “Hey guys,” he says. “Holding down the fort?” 

“Yeah,” Steve says. “We have a question for you.” 

“Sure thing, kiddo, lemme go to the bathroom first.” 

Steve nods, and Hopper heads down the hall. “Are you okay?” Joyce asks them generally. “Do you need something to eat?” 

“We’re making something, Mom,” Jonathan says. He smiles when Joyce pats his back. “You hungry?” 

“No,” Joyce says. “No, honey, I’m good. Thank you. I’m gonna go check on Will.” And she hurries away. Always in a hurry. 

“Did she see us?” Steve asks. 

“I don’t think so. When she caught me and Nancy together for the first time, she made us tea and sat us down to talk about consent.” 

Steve snorts. “I’ll prepare.” 

“It’s totally scarring,” Jonathan agrees, and moves the cooked eggs onto a plate. “Eat.” 

“Yes sir.” Steve gets a fork and has the first bite. And that’s when he discovers that eating food somebody else made for him tastes six million times better than food he made himself. 

 

 

It's awkward now, to be in a room with Billy now that she doesn't hate him. She's not sure how to treat him, and she feels the strangest urge not to fight with him. She doesn't like it, it feels out of control. So she sits in Jonathan's room quietly with him, wishing the other two boys were here. Or that Eleven wasn't asleep, since Max is just quiet and drawn. 

"So was it a demogorgon?" she asks when the silence is unbearable.

"What?" He's leaning back in the chair, head tipped back to look at the ceiling. 

"The thing that pulled you into the Upside Down. In California."

"Yep."

"Do you get good grades?"

Billy sits up to look at her. "Why, Wheeler. You want to add me to your harem?"

Nancy flushes, and hates him for it. Before she can open her mouth, Max says, "He's flunking.”

“Hey,” Steve says, appearing in the door. “C’mon, we’re gonna talk to Hopper.” He looks between Nancy and Billy, sensing the tension probably. “You good?” he asks. 

“We’re fine," Nancy says, willing it to be so. 

Hopper looks around at them when they’re gathered in the living room, and he huffs out half a laugh. “You all look pretty serious for having just saved the lives of three kids.” 

“Three down, two to go,” Nancy says under her breath. Steve whacks her arm to shut her up. 

“Okay,” Hopper says. “Hit me.” 

Everyone looks around at each other, trying to determine who will talk. Except Billy, who just looks at the ground. “Billy’s dad’s a real piece of work,” Steve finally says. “And we don’t know how to make him stop.” 

“Stop,” Hopper repeats. 

“We thought you could talk to him,” Jonathan jumps in. “When you take Billy and Max home tonight.” 

“Talk to him about what?” Joyce says. She’s standing awful close to Hopper, which Nancy finds extremely interesting but also inconvenient. 

“About easing up on his kids,” Steve says. 

They’re doing a terrible job at this, but Billy’s already scared out of his mind so Nancy doesn’t get involved. She listens, and because she knows how Hopper will decide. “Sure,” he says. “Now?” 

“Sure,” Billy says quietly. 

“Alright, c’mon. Truck’s outside.” 

After he heads outside, Joyce behind him, Steve and Jonathan exchange a look. “That could’ve gone better,” Steve says. 

“I think he got it,” Jonathan says. 

Billy doesn’t agree. His jaw is tight, and he has to consciously unclench his fists before he says anything. “I’ll get Max,” he mumbles, and walks back down the hall. 

He’s scared. He’s just really scared, but he’ll never tell anybody. Especially the boys, because he probably wants to maintain this whole tough mysterious guy thing he’s got going on. The thing Steve thought he had a while back. 

It’s total bullshit. He shouldn’t have to face this shit alone just because he doesn't know how to ask for help. And if Hopper doesn’t understand, she can’t just let something bad happen to Billy tonight. She can’t. It’s not right. So Nancy comes over to the door and stuffs her feet into her boots. 

“Nance,” Steve says warily. 

“I’m going,” she says. I’m going and there’s nothing you can-“ 

“I’m not trying to stop you,” he says quickly, holding up his hands. “Okay? I’m not. I love you. Go. But be smart, alright?” 

Jonathan nods behind Steve, supporting her too. Nancy presses her lips together and pulls both of them in for a hug that’s more of a huddle. “I can’t let this happen, right?” she whispers. 

“We can’t,” Steve says. “Yeah.” He kisses her forehead, Jonathan kisses her cheek, and Nancy feels so full of love she thinks she could punch a hole in the universe herself. 

Billy comes back then, in the middle of their hug. He walks straight past them with Max, gets his coat on and goes outside without saying anything. Nancy raises her eyebrows at her boys, and follows them out pulling her own coat on. 

Hopper’s smoking, talking with Joyce. “You’re coming too?” he asks Nancy when he sees her. 

“Moral support,” she says, and climbs in. 

It’s a tight fit, all three of them in the seat. Billy’s in the middle, his arm over the seat behind Nancy. She can feel his fingers fidgeting on the seat back, and after as much time as she can stand, she leans back against him and says, “Stop.” 

He stops, and that’s the surest sign of a real problem. He never just listens. “Not sure what the fuck you’re doing here anyway,” he says tightly. “Stay back with the guys.” 

“I would if I wanted to.” 

Hopper and Joyce separate, and when Hopper gets in the cab the minimal conversation is over. Billy is not interested in talking. He does a lot of trembling, though. Nancy feels it through the seat. 

“Remind me what you want me to do here,” Hopper says when they’re outside the house. “Take some of the heat off?” 

Nancy leans forwards to look past the other two at him. “Let his dad know that you’re keeping an eye on the kids and you don’t want them to be in any trouble,” she says, trying to walk the line between real and too embarrassing. “If that’s okay?” She looks at Billy, hoping he’ll add something but his lips are clamped shut.

“Sure,” Hopper nods. 

Nancy still has a hunch that he doesn’t get it. It’s a hunch that has her heart in the back of her throat, as they’re all getting out of the truck, and as Hopper’s walking up to the door with Max, Nancy pulls Billy back. 

“Stop, Wheeler.” He twists out of her grip. 

“You’re acting like…” 

He glances over at the sound of Hopper knocking on the door. “I’m fine,” he says. “I’ll be fine. You did your best.” And he walks forward to join Hopper and Max as his dad opened the door. 

“Good evening, officer,” Billy’s dad says, and Max shrinks against Hopper.

That gets Hopper’s attention. Nancy watches him look down at Max, up at her dad, and Nancy desperately hopes he’s putting the dots together. “It’s chief, actually,” he says. “These are your kids, right?” 

“Depends, are they in trouble?” Mr. Hargrove says, and then laughs. Nancy can hear her heart in her ears. 

“Nope,” Hopper says. “No trouble. They actually helped me out tonight, with a missing persons case.” He pauses, and Nancy wills him to say more, something, even though she can’t think of anything that would make this better. This was a bad idea. “Did I see you at the Wheelers’ earlier?” 

“Sure did. We’re loving it here.” 

If Mr Hargrove’s smile rings so false to Nancy, Hopper has to see it. He has to. But he lets go of Max’s shoulders. “Go easy on ‘em,” he says. “They’ve had a tough night.” 

Their dad just smiles. Nancy watches Max and Billy walk past him through the door, and her head’s spinning so hard she might be sick. “G’night, chief,” he says, and shuts the door. 

"That wasn't exactly what we had in mind," Nancy says after a second.

"Oh yeah?" Hopper says dubiously. "Why didn't you say something, then." 

"Because their dad-" Nancy begins, and then they feel the house shake. They hear it too, rattling windows and a loud thump, but Nancy feels it in her guts. The whole house shakes. "Fuck," she says, and runs to the door. 

"Nancy," Hopper snaps, but she's already got the door open, and Billy's right there, slumped against the wall and held there by his dad. Max is between her and them, looking like she wants to melt into the wall.

Nancy accidentally makes eye contact with him, and that's something she regrets immediately. She looks at his dad instead, focuses all of her fury and heat and power she might have, and tells him, "Back the fuck off." Billy exhales something that might be a laugh, and his old man moves to hit him for it. 

Before Nancy can try to stop him, Hopper moves past her and pulls Billy's dad off him easily, pushing him back against the opposite wall. "Stay away from the kid," he snaps, his voice low and menacing. 

Billy reaches out for Nancy, and she reaches back without thinking much of it. His hand is ice cold. He needs help standing up straight, and she has to brace herself to keep the two of them standing. He doesn't say anything, but he's trembling again and that says everything she needs. 

"Get out of my house," Mr. Hargrove says. 

"Neil," Max's mom says from deeper in the house. Nancy didn't notice her coming, but now she's standing at the end of the hall. 

"Be quiet, Susan," Mr. Hargrove snaps. "This is trespassing, and I'll complain to-"

"To who, dumbass?" Hopper snorts. "The mayor? I went to school with Charlie. He's not gonna give a shit that I came into your house. Your kids are coming back with me tonight, and if you treat them like this when I let them come back you'll be in handcuffs. Understand?"

"You can't tell me what to do in my own home," Mr. Hargrove begins. 

"Then enjoy spending some time in the a jail cell, buddy," Hopper says. "Domestic violence is a crime, and I'll throw in everything else I've got. Max, let's go." 

"It's okay," Max starts. 

Hopper guides her out while she's still making excuses for him, comes back while Nancy's helping Billy out to the car and says, "Ma'am, if he touches you, call me. This is the office number, this is my home phone, and you can try me at the Byers' too." Nancy glances back to see him writing on a small card. 

Nancy stops listening to the argument between the adults, because Billy's knees go weak and he almost takes both of them down. "Hey," she says sharply. 

"Wasn't me," he says indistinctly. He straightens up without her help, but sags into her again almost immediately. 

"You hit the wall pretty hard, is your head okay?" she asks. 

"You tell me." He intends this to be a joke, tries to smile. 

"No," Nancy says. "Just because I saw your dad kick your ass doesn't mean I'm allowing that. Get in the car." 

Max is in the seat; she helps pull Billy in, hugs him around the waist tightly while Nancy's climbing in. She doesn’t say anything, and when Hopper gets in she turns to cling to him, and Hopper puts his arm around her. “Okay,” he says. “Now I get it.” 

“Oh yeah, pops?” Billy says. “Do you get it?” 

“Cut it out,” Hopper says. “I’m taking you back to Joyce, she’ll take a look at your head.” 

“Is she a nurse?” Billy asks crossly. 

“No, she’s a mom with two boys.” Hopper cracks his window and lights up. “You probably have a concussion from that. You feel sick?” 

“No.” He sounds obstinate, and Nancy suspects the answer is yes. 

Hopper isn’t upset. “Whatever you say, kid.” 

When they get out of the car at the Byers’, Billy waves her off, stumbles off to one side and pukes into a small bush. Nancy watches, and when he’s finished he comes back towards her, puts his arm out and Nancy reaches back, keeps him from falling. “You’re strong,” he says, in something like dumb shock. Like he’s just now processing this. “For being a girl.” 

“You had to go and ruin it,” she says under her breath, but she still helps him to the door. 

“Kinda my whole thing,” Billy says. He shifts closer, and Nancy’s uncomfortable but not enough to push him off. It seems like he likes her uncomfortable, anyways. So she ignores it to spite him. 

She hoists him a little more upright and says, “Stop. The pity party can start once you’re lying down. And I won’t throw it if you continue to try to fuck me,” Nancy says, wrinkling her nose. 

“I’m not.” 

“You’re not,” she repeats. Then they have a moment where all they can focus on is getting up the steps. “Then what would you call it?” she eventually says. 

“Trying to figure out if _you_ want to fuck me,” he mumbles. 

“Here’s a thought - I do not. As I’ve said.” 

“Right, but like…” He’s slurring his words, almost runs into the door frame. “It’s what you want,” she thinks she hears him say. 

“Be quiet,” she says. “Kids are sleeping.” 

Max doesn’t talk to either of them. She lets Joyce usher her into Will’s room, where all the other little kids sleep, and Nancy watches her with more than a little nostalgia. It must be nice to still be able to let an adult take care of things for you, to just relax into their authority. Nancy, by contrast, is stuck holding up a drunk angry jock who smells more than a little bit like vomit while he tries to take off his shoes. 

“Come on,” Hopper says, and takes Billy’s weight off Nancy. “Nance, can you go start a shower? I’ll get him there.” 

She nods, glad of the out, and kicks off her shoes. She hangs her coat on the coat rack and then hurries back to the bathroom. While she’s turning on the water, Steve and Jonathan come into in the doorway, looking a little flustered. “Hey,” Steve says. 

“Hi,” Nancy smiles. “What’s going on?” 

“You aren't pissed if me and Jonathan have kinda decided to start making out, right?” Steve says all in a rush. 

“No,” she says after a second. “No, I’m not pissed. Have you?” 

“Yeah,” Jonathan says. “As of tonight.” 

“Cool.” She looks at the running water, temporarily confused as to what she was doing before this revelation. “Okay. Uh. Do you think the two of you are…” 

Before she can finish that, Hopper comes in with Billy. “Out,” Hopper says. 

“They can stay,” Billy mumbles rebelliously. 

“Okay,” Hopper huffs, too exasperated to care. “Jonathan, can you get something he can wear tonight?” 

“Sure,” Jonathan nods and leaves the doorway. 

Steve slips past Nancy to help get Billy in the shower; his knee is still hurt, and he’s uncooperative with Hopper. The moment they start to tug his pants off, Nancy leaves to lean on the wall just outside the door. 

“I’m not getting naked for you,” she hears from Billy.

“Relax, Billy. As if anyone’s holding their breath for that,” Steve grumbles back. “Hop, can you hold him up?” 

“Hey, no, get off me,” Billy says louder, and there’s the sound of a scuffle for a second. 

“Chill out.” Hopper sounds a little strained. “Okay? We’re helping you. You definitely have a concussion, so we’re going to get you in this shower and out, and go from there. We clear?” 

“Yes sir.” 

“Should I be calling you sir?” Steve asks. 

Nancy rolls her eyes at him. From the sound of his voice, so does Hopper. “It might help,” Hopper says. 

Jonathan ducks in the bathroom to give him fresh clothes, but then he comes back out to join Nancy in the hallway. He holds her hand, and leans against her. “So you’re officially on Billy’s side, then,” he says. 

“There wasn’t much of a choice,” Nancy tries to claim at first. But then Jonathan gives her a look, and she sighs. “I guess. Don’t make me think about it too hard.” 

“Cuz of Max?” 

Nancy nods. “You should’ve seen how scared he was,” she says softly.

“I’m kind of glad I didn’t.” 

She squeezes his hand and leans against him. “Yeah,” she has to admit. “Maybe you should be.”

In ten minutes, Steve, Hopper, and Billy come back out. Billy is generally damp, and Steve has a wet handprint on his shirt. He looks exhausted. “I’m going to bed,” Hopper says. “Have him drink two glasses of water and wake us up if he does anything weird.” 

“Got it,” Jonathan answers. 

Nancy doesn’t recognize the shirt on Billy as one of Jonathan’s. That’s the only thought she manages to muster while they get settled in Jonathan’s bedroom. She and Steve take the bed, while Jonathan volunteers to stay on the floor and make sure Billy doesn’t stop breathing in the night or something. Nancy’s not really clear on the dangers of this situation. She makes a mental note to read up on it more for the future. 

Finally, they’re all in bed and under blankets to their comfort levels, respectively. Everything’s silent for a glorious second, and then Billy says, “Kind of an anticlimax.”

“What?” Steve says in bewilderment. 

“Well it’s like… that’s it? The police guy fixes everything?” 

“That’s his job,” Jonathan points out. 

“No, I know but. I was looking forward to seeing Wheeler kick my dad’s ass,” Billy says after a pause. 

“I should’ve brought a weapon,” she says, only half joking. 

Steve grumbles indistinctly and says, “I don’t like the two of you being friends,” he says into her ear. “I can feel a like, constant headache developing.” 

“You’re being dramatic,” Nance sighs. “Come on.” 

“Not that dramatic. You told his dad to fuck off.” 

Nancy didn’t tell him that. Billy must’ve, at some point in the shower process. “I wasn’t going to punch him,” she says. 

“No, but he could’ve hit you,” Jonathan says from the floor. 

“Right, like I’d let that happen,” Billy says. 

“Excuse you, I don’t need any help,” Nancy retorts. “I could handle it.”

He snorts. “Yeah right. Okay. I wouldn’t let that happen.” 

“What would you do if I come over there and kick your ass?” Nancy says impatiently, sitting halfway up. Steve pulls her down. 

“Sleep,” he says. “I’m tired.” 

“Any time, any place,” Billy answers anyways. They don’t fight, though. They just sleep. 

 

 

Christmas with his family is what it usually is. The day after Christmas is way better, when he goes over to Jonathan’s and Nancy comes too and they spend the morning together, on a couch under the blankets watching Rudolph and drinking coffee. And with Nancy tucked under one arm, Jonathan leaning against him on the other side, Steve feels a lot better about the holidays. “I love you guys,” he tells them, not for the first time. 

“And?” Nancy smiles. 

“And nothing.” 

“You just have that tone in your voice that’s like… y’know. You have something on your mind,” Jonathan says. 

“It’s super annoying that you know me so well,” Steve mumbles.

“Well?” Nancy asks when he doesn’t say anything else.

“I got Billy a present,” he admits all in a rush. “Okay? I got him something. I’m thinking about when I’m going to give it to him.” 

“What’d you get him?”

“A couple records, nothing major. And Max is at Dustin’s with all the other kids. So I figured maybe, like.” 

“We can go say hi to Billy and give him your gifts,” Nancy says. “If that’s what you want.” 

“Yeah, we’ve been on the couch for a while,” Jonathan says. 

As always, talking to them is easier than Steve thinks it’ll be. He can’t quite believe it, even when they’re in the car heading over. It feels like there must be some kinda catch he doesn’t understand. But Jonathan and Nancy keep being perfect, and Steve won’t question it. 

They’re standing behind him, flanking him, when he knocks on the door. And when Billy’s dad opens the door, Nancy’s the one who speaks up. “Hey is Billy here?” she says. 

“Yes,” the man answers tightly.

“Can we see him?” Nancy prompts. 

He leaves and shuts the door, and they all kind of look at each other. “Should we knock again?” Steve asks. 

Billy opens the door after a second, stands in the doorway and holds onto the door. “Yeah?” he says. 

Steve takes the wrapped presents out from behind the his back. “Merry Christmas,” he says. “Don’t get weird about it.” 

That earns him a glare, as Billy takes it and rips it open. He looks at the records, the three of them, and flips one over to look at the tracks. “I didn’t get you anything,” he says. 

“Yeah, no shit,” Steve says. 

“We didn’t get you anything either,” Nancy points out. 

Billy looks at her, at Steve and then Jonathan, and says, “You probably don’t want to come in.” 

“Do you want us to?” Jonathan says.

“No.” Billy snorts. “Hold on.” And he goes back inside. 

Steve turns around to look at both of the others. They both just kinda shrug, and he opens his mouth to complain about it but then the door opens again and Billy comes out with his coat on and a cigarette between his lips. “What,” Billy says flatly. “I’m not gonna just let you drive over here for like, two seconds.” He lights it, shielding the end from the wind until it catches, and then looks at the three of them. “What’ve you been doing?” 

“Nothing much,” Steve says. 

“Watching cheesy Christmas specials,” Nancy says. “And watching Joyce give us all kinds of knowing looks. Even through she doesn’t seem sure exactly what she knows.” 

Jonathan laughs. “She knows I have friends,” he says. “That’s unusual in and of itself.” 

“Yeah, my dad doesn’t know get the fuck is going on here,” Billy mumbles. He glances back behind him, and Steve sees the curtain move. Someone’s watching them. 

“He leaving you alone?” Nancy asks, right on cue. 

“So far,” Billy says. “Yeah. Susan too, she’s started standing up to him.” He exhales smoke, looks at nothing in particular. “Finally.” 

“You get along with her?” Steve asks. “You don’t talk about her much.” 

“Nothing to talk about, pretty boy,” Billy says. 

Steve looks at Nancy and Jonathan, offended and looking for support. He doesn’t think he’s any more particularly pretty than any other boy. Neither of them seem particularly sympathetic to him, though. “You don’t interact with her at all?” Nancy asks. “You live in the same house.” 

Billy shrugs. “She’s Max’s mom, not mine. And Dad doesn’t…” He stops himself, and then he seems to realize the position that puts him in. 

“What?” Nancy asks.

“Yeah,” Billy sighs. “Opened myself up to that one.” He flicks some ash off the end of the his cigarette. “It’s a long story. Let’s leave it at that.”

“Let’s not,” Steve frowns. 

“Fuck off.” 

“Come on,” Steve says. “Tell us.” 

Billy’s not swayed. He glares at the three of them, stomps out the butt and Steve half thinks that’s gonna be the end of it, that Billy’s going inside. Maybe tell them to fuck off on the way. But Billy stuffs his hands deep in his pockets and stays put. “Doesn’t want a repeat of what happened with my real ma,” he forces himself to say. “Doesn’t want me to take her side.” 

Suddenly, Steve feels a little cold. He glances at Nancy and Jonathan, then back at Billy but just barely. “Great guy,” he finally says. 

“Yeah, I had to get it from somewhere,” Billy mutters. 

Nancy looks at Steve, then at Jonathan, and Steve can read her intention clear as day. “Hey,” she says. “We’re spending New Years’ Eve together at my house. Steve’s making food for everyone. You want to come?” 

“Will the rugrats be there?” Billy says.

“Downstairs. They have some sort of G.I. Joe D&D combination thing happening,” Steve answers, since he’s the resident kid expert. “We’ll be upstairs. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler are going to be at the Henderson’s.” 

“And you want me there,” he says dubiously. 

“Yes,” Nancy answers definitively. 

“Sure,” Jonathan says. 

Billy looks at Steve, after the couple of seconds when Steve doesn’t answer right away. “What, you don’t agree?” he says. 

He shrugs. “I agree.” 

“Do you really?” 

“You really need a signed, engraved invitation from every one of us to come hang out?” Steve says flatly. 

Billy smiles like he used to, a dangerous one but they’re on the inside of it now. “I’ll see you there,” he says, and makes a point of bumping into Steve on the way back inside. 

“I don’t understand that,” Nancy says after the door shuts. “Why didn’t you just say yes?” 

“I don’t know,” Steve says. He had some kind of gut instinct. 

Billy shows up on New Years’ Eve, sure enough, and Steve answers the door. “Hey,” he says.

Max is with him; she runs inside without saying hi. And Billy’s got a bottle of wine, and a box of something. “Cookies,” he says, and pushes both into Steve’s hands. 

“You made cookies for us?” Steve says dubiously. 

“No, shithead. Susan made ‘em.” Billy comes inside, kicks off his snow-covered boots and pulls off his coat. 

“Were you nice to her?” Steve asks. 

“Why do you fucking care, man, you sweet on my mom or something?” 

Steve gives Billy the most patient withering stare he can manage. “No.” 

“Then why’re you up my ass?” Billy asks, and he puts a hand on his hip. “The other two seem fine with me.” 

“Well. Nance, once she makes her mind up, doesn't usually change it, and Jonathan’s the nicest guy in the world. Somebody has to keep you honest,” Steve shrugs. 

Billy shrugs back. “Yeah, I was nice to her. She did me a favor. What’d you make for tonight?” 

“Pigs in a blanket, brownies. Pizza rolls for the kids. A variety of dips.” Steve smiles, and Billy rolls his eyes back. 

“I’m gonna start drinking now,” he says. “And I’m not gonna stop.” 

“However you need to cope,” Steve says. 

It’s not uncomfortable, with him there. They all sit on the couch and watch the performances, the countdown till the ball dropping. Billy drinks twice as much as they do, but he just gets quiet, sinking deep into the couch next to Steve and picking at the label of an empty beer bottle. 

The ball falls, and Nancy kisses Steve and Jonathan both. “You giving those out for free?” Billy says from Steve’s other side. 

“No, but Steve might be,” Nancy retorts. 

Billy huffs out a laugh. “Nah. Too scared of me.” 

It’s goading and ridiculous. “I’m not scared of you, jackass,” Steve says. “But I’m not making out with you either.” 

“What, you’ve just gotten over it?” Billy says, his eyes half shut and words a little slow. “Coulda killed you,” he says. “That’s not a big deal anymore?”

“It’s a big deal,” Steve says. “It’d be less of a big deal if you stopped bringing it up.” 

“If you’re the one keeping me honest, you shouldn’t have a problem with me bringing it up, right?” 

“I don’t have a problem with it. But I don’t want a reminder.” 

Billy reaches out, puts a hand on Steve’s shoulder and moves it to his chin, to turn his face towards Billy so he can see it better. “You have a scar?” he asks. “Don’t see one.” 

“On my forehead. It might’ve faded.” Steve points at the spot. “I’m fine,” he says, trying to encourage Billy to let go of his face. He doesn’t quite want to bat him away, it feels like it’d start something. 

“You’re fine,” Billy echoes back. His hand is warm. And he does let go, then, and pokes the spot on Steve’s forehead. 

“You apologized,” Steve says, guessing at what Billy might be thinking. “There’s not a whole lot else to say. Y’know? It happened.” He looks over at Nancy and Jonathan, who have been suspiciously silent during this whole thing. Nancy’s nodding off against Jonathan’s shoulder, and Jonathan’s pretending to watch the celebration on TV. 

“Yeah, but.”

Steve has another wild guess. It seems like Billy’s feeling honest, real regret. Watching him struggle for words is just… it feels good, but. “You don’t have to feel bad,” he says. “I’m good.” 

“You’re gonna change your mind, though.”

“No, I’m not. And it’s not just me, y’know. All three of us.” 

“All three of you.” 

“Yeah. And all four of us will probably see each other a bunch, taking care of the little kids. So. Get used to it, I guess.” Nance shifts in her sleep, and Steve looks over to see Jonathan’s sleeping too. “You think you can sleep?” 

“What’s that mean.” 

“I can’t always sleep new places,” Steve shrugs. “You haven’t been here before. Just being friendly.” 

“Fuck you, Harrington,” Billy sighs. 

They kind of nod off after that, and Steve’s just awake enough to register when Jonathan gets up. He feels a blanket over him next, opens his eyes to see Jonathan putting one over Billy before getting back next to Nance and spreading one over the two of them too. “Thanks mom,” Steve says. 

“Go to sleep,” Jonathan answers. 

Billy snorts, and Steve reaches out to whack him. He does it without thinking, like he’d do to any of the other kids. The surprising thing is that Billy lets him. And when Steve starts awake around six in the morning, Billy’s closer to him, his hand resting against Steve’s leg. Though Steve waking up wakes everyone else up too. 

“What?” Nancy mumbles sleepily. 

“Nothing,” Steve says. 

“It’s something,” Jonathan yawns. 

“I don’t like waking up early,” Billy mumbles into the couch cushion. “For the record.” 

“Then go back to sleep, asshole,” Steve says. He gets up, shrugging off the blanket.

Nancy reaches out and catches his hand. “Where are you going?” 

“I’ll be back,” he says, and gets away. 

He’s not that upset. He’s really not, he’s just breathing hard from the extremely realistic dream where the demogorgon came through the basement wall to get the kids and he couldn’t get there. Door was locked. His stomach is flip-flopping while he puts on his shoes, his coat, and he heads outside for air. A short walk. He turns his collar up against the cold after a few houses, sticks his hands in his pockets and thinks. 

Behind him, he smells cigarette smoke. “Swear to Christ, Billy,” he says and turns around. It’s Jonathan. 

“Sorry to disappoint,” he smiles. 

“It’s fine.” Steve waits for him, and they fall into step together. “Rather it was you anyway.” 

Jonathan nudges him with his shoulder. “Come back home,” he says. “Talk to us.” 

“I don’t want to talk to you. I mean.” Steve looks over at Jonathan. “I do want to talk to you. But not about this. I don’t have to explain every bad dream I have.” 

“It’s just because we’re worried about you.” 

“I know.” Steve looks up at the sky, how it’s brightening. “It gets kind of old, though. To be worried about. When the two of you are out kicking ass.” 

“You kick ass too.” 

Steve shrugs. “I know. But y’know.”

“Doesn't feel that way?” 

“Right.” 

“Okay. I’ll back off.” 

Steve looks around, at the greyish brownish grass and bare trees. Most of the snow melted during a hot morning after Christmas, and Steve’s glad. It’d be gross to walk in snow. “You’ve been smoking a lot more,” he says. 

“Been stressed a lot more. And Mom’s smoking again too.” 

“Probably cuz of Hopper,” Steve says, and Jonathan snorts. 

“Yeah, he’s a chimney. Good trade-off, though. It’s nice having him around. Good for Will.” 

Steve nods absently. “Yeah,” he says. “He’s a good guy.” 

“She’s liked him since high school,” Jonathan says, half to himself. “Used to talk about him, whatever she could hear from the moms or his secretary. She kept tabs on him.” 

“That’s nice. High school sweethearts.”

“That’s what we’ll be, right?” 

Steve looks over at him, eyes catching on the end of his cigarette. “Yeah,” he says. “I guess. If we make it.” 

“You don’t think we’ll make it?” 

“Dude, how often do three people in one relationship make it?” 

Jonathan stops on the sidewalk, and Steve stops with him. “Dude,” Jonathan says. “How often do three people even have a relationship? We’re already beating the odds.” 

They’re standing there for a second together, looking at each other, their breath curling into the air between them. Then they notice someone approaching. And after a second, Steve recognizes it as Billy. 

“Not Nancy?” Steve says to Jonathan. 

“She’s been trying to interfere less,” Jonathan says. 

Billy examines the two of them while he approaches, stops in front of them and says, “What’s going on?” 

“Nothing,” Steve says. 

“He doesn’t want to talk about it,” Jonathan adds, and Steve glares. 

“No, it’s really nothing. Let’s go back,” he says. 

“You just want to avoid talking,” Billy says, looking off somewhere over their shoulders. “Right?” 

“Y’know, it’s not like the two of you are known for being so open and talkative,” Steve grumbles. “No moral high ground here.” 

“It’s not high ground,” Jonathan says. “I care.” And Billy nods, like that’s true. So Steve just ignores them, and starts walking back to Nancy’s house.

“Going back to school,” he eventually says. “All of us.” 

“Yeah, so?” Jonathan answers. 

“So. It’ll be odd.” 

“It will not,” Billy says. “Act normal, Harrington.” 

“Right,” Steve says. “Act normal and just not explain how we became friends. Somehow?” 

Billy’s tramping through slushy grass next to them. “You aren’t gonna explain how the two of you started dating, basically,” he grumbles. “So you don’t have to explain anything, far as I can figure.” 

Steve glances at Jonathan; Jonathan shrugs. Doesn’t sound like Billy’s going to tell anybody if he’s figured anything out. And, as obnoxious as it is to agree with advice from Billy Hargrove, Steve has to admit he’s got a point. “Well,” he says. “This'll be good.” 

 

 

\-------

 

 

Summer in Hawkins is overwhelmingly oppressive. The heat is enough to flatten her some days, the work boring, and the people even less interesting than usual. It grates on Nancy’s nerves when she’s at work, or driving, or listening to her parents argue. But the other half of the summer, when she’s with the people she loves, it’s a little better.

Steve’s car has been hers for most of the summer, since she has to drive to work and pick up the kids and Steve’s schedule is a little more flexible. She’s made the car hers in the past month. With towels, a general crust of dried pool water, and the smell of sunscreen. Nancy takes a deep breath of it before she starts the car, to switch modes, so to speak. From lifeguard to this new bigger thing she is the rest of the time, whatever it is. She suspects it’s adulthood, or something close, but she doesn’t like to think about that much. 

She rolls all the windows down and then heads to her first stop. Out of direct sun, she feels a little cold. Even though that’s patently ridiculous, it’s only just dropped below ninety. Considering how long she’s been in the sun, though, she’d expect to be a little more tan. It’s annoying. Mike doesn’t tan either, just goes freckly and pink, and Nancy doesn’t burn exactly but she only gets a little darker. 

First stop is the Hargrove house. Nance pulls in the driveway and honks twice. While she’s waiting, she looks over at Billy’s car. Nothing has changed, the tires are still slashed from that particularly bad fight they got into when his dad found out he’d flunked his senior year. Looking never changes it, but Nancy always thinks she’ll give it a shot. 

Billy comes out, slamming the door behind him. Summer has him shirtless most of the time, a deep golden tan on his shoulders. He’s got a shirt slung over his shoulder along with his backpack, today. Steve’s been enforcing a very firm ‘no shirt no dinner’ policy. 

“Hey Nance,” he says when he’s close enough. 

“Hi. Something wrong?” 

He doesn’t slam the car door when he gets in, but he clenches his hands into fists on his knees. She tries not to stare, but when she does she sees his eyes are bright with unshed tears. So she looks away while he takes measured deep breaths - Hopper’s suggestion for anger management. “Can we get out of here?” he says tightly. 

“Sure. Are you okay?” she asks, putting the car in reverse.

“Yep.” 

“Billy.” 

He looks over at her, pulling his seatbelt on while she drives. “Nancy,” He says, matching her tone. “Leave it alone.” And since he’s one of the only people who can beat her in a battle of wills, she leaves it. 

“I guess we can’t realistically tell your dad he can’t talk to you,” she says, half to herself. 

“Not realistically, no,” he shakes his head, but he’s got a bit of a smile on his face after that. “Work go okay?” he asks then.

“Work was good,” she nods. “Nobody drowned.” 

“That’s a start.” 

They stop back at Nancy’s house, since Steve’s not off work for three hours and Jonathan for four. “I have to shower, you alright down here?” she asks, and Billy nods. 

“Parents home?” 

“No, they're at the pool,” she calls from the steps. “Be right back.” 

It’s so relaxing to feel the grime come off. She ends up taking longer than she expected in here, and panics a little. Leaving Billy alone for a while is always slightly unnerving. She rushes through getting dressed and comes downstairs with wet hair. But there’s nothing to worry about. Billy’s on the couch, on his stomach, asleep. 

He needs to do his homework. Nancy’s not about to let him flunk out of summer school. If he can make good grades here, he can have a new senior year and graduate with Nancy and Jonathan and maybe even get into the same colleges. But she knows his dad still manages to keep him up at night, so she lets him sleep. She sits in a chair and opens her book, and waits for him to wake up. 

After an hour, he inhales deeply and lifts his head. He blinks blearily, looks over at her. “Good morning,” she says. 

“Mmm.” He drops his head again. “You aren’t gonna hassle me about doing my school shit?” 

Nancy decides not to let him know exactly how razor thin that line was. “I’m going to let you make your own decisions,” she answers. 

Billy makes a weird rough sound, somewhere between a snort and a sound of disgust. “Sure,” he says. “Okay.” And he gets up to walk into the kitchen. “What can I eat?” he asks. 

“There’s peaches. And leftovers from Dad grilling last night.” 

They reached a series of compromises at the beginning of the summer. All four of them, but mainly Billy and Nancy. And mainly it’s conditions for Billy to abide by, if he's going to spend so much time in her home. Which so far, he has been. 

To his credit, he does abide by them. He puts his food on a plate, he takes that plate to the dining room, and he eats at the table. And then he comes back to the couch and does his homework. 

Mike careens in through the door at top speed around three. “Hi Nance,” he yells without stopping. She hears him climb the stairs and dash to his bedroom. 

El comes in after him, much quieter and slower. “Hello,” she says. 

“Hi,” Nancy says. 

“Hello Billy,” Eleven adds pointedly. 

“Hey. You gonna kill me today?” Billy asks without looking up. 

“Not today. I’m working on a trick,” she tells them. 

“Oh yeah? What?”

“Superman.” But then Mike comes barreling back down the stairs and out the door, and El follows without explaining.

“Bye Nance,” she hears Mike yell, and the door slams shut. 

“They’re fast,” Billy says after a second. 

“Just a blur these days.” 

He almost laughs at that, and then they fall back into comfortable silence. And it is comfortable. They’ve done this every weekday afternoon for the whole summer. He stopped thinking about hitting on her after the first week. Which is honestly a blessing, because now she doesn’t have to feel conflicted about kind of wanting him to. But only kind of. 

Billy finishes his homework and goes back to sleep for the rest of the time, and Nancy decides to ask Steve if they can accidentally on purpose make it a sleepover tonight, so Billy can get some actual rest. 

When it’s approaching five, Nancy wakes him up. “Hey. Billy.” He’s on his back, so she jiggles his arm a little. “C’mon, we’re going to Steve’s.” He bats her hand away, but Nancy keeps poking. “Come on.” 

“God, okay,” he grumbles, but doesn’t get up, so Nancy graduates to picking up his arm and dropping it, but she only manages that once before he grabs her arm and uses it as leverage to sit up. “Cut it out, Nance,” he says, and lets go to rub the heels of his palms deep in his eyes. 

“Put your shirt on,” she says, not unkindly, and gets up to find her bag. 

She comes back with the bag and Billy has his shirt on, is putting his shoes on. “Jonathan?” he says. 

“He’s coming, he works a little longer today.” 

Billy nods. He follows her out to the car then. The heat’s still oppressive, but Nancy keeps the windows down. The breeze feels nice, and it suits her mood. “You mind?” Billy says, rifling through the tapes she’s got. 

“No.” She shakes her head. 

He puts in one of the mix tapes Jonathan made them, a usual choice. He looks at the track list while it starts playing. “Are you tired?” she asks him. 

“Not really.” 

That doesn’t sound right. She looks over at him, but he’s expecting that and he looks back at her. “I’m just checking,” she says. 

“Okay,” he says, and looks back out his window. 

Steve answers the door, hugs Nancy hello and after a second, hugs Billy too, briefly. “How’s it going?” 

“Pretty good,” Nancy says. 

“Hot,” Billy answers. 

“I’m opening up the pool today,” Steve says, looking at neither of them. “C’mon out back, you can cool off.” And he goes back inside, leaving the door open. 

Nancy and Billy exchange a look. “What the fuck,” Billy says. “The pool?” 

“I don’t know, he didn’t mention it before.” 

“Great,” Billy mumbles, and they follow Steve in. 

He is opening the pool, that’s very true. The first thing he does is roll up the cover and fish a few leaves out, while Nancy and Billy watch. Billy flops down into a deck chair pretty soon, but Nancy stays anxiously standing. She doesn’t know what to look at, what’s safe and what would make her panic. 

She manages to figure one thing out. Diving board is a no. One look and she feels weak in the knees. “Why are you doing this today?” Nancy says loudly, to Steve. 

“Because I’m done being scared, Nance,” he says, struggling with the tarp. Billy gets up to help him after watching for a minute, and the two of them get the tarp packed away. “It’s a pool,” Steve says then. “It’s just a pool, and if the demogorgons want to come back they’ll do it. Whether there’s a tarp on here or not.” 

That doesn’t reassure her, even though she saw the bat leaning against the screen door, within reach if something goes wrong. She stays where she is, holding onto the back of a deck chair. The sun's setting, and it might just be her panic but she thinks the pool is taking on a reddish cast. “What if something about this tempts them,” she says. 

“What? I can’t hear you,” Steve says, coming around to her. Billy follows slower, looking in the pool. 

“Nothing,” Nancy says after a second. “It’s fine.”

Steve tries to smile at her. “I’m gonna go check on the baked potatoes,” he says, and makes an escape. And Nancy feels a moment of anger at him, for opening this up and then not sticking around. 

“You seem wound tight,” Billy says walking towards her. 

“I’m not,” Nancy says. He taps her knuckle, and Nancy looks down to see they’re white, from holding the back of the chair so tightly. She lets go a little bit. “You don’t know,” she says. 

“I know a bit.” 

Nancy doesn’t look at him. She can’t, or she’ll cry. “You don’t. I lost my best friend.”

“It happened here?” 

Nancy nods once. “As far as El can tell.” 

“Don’t punch me, alright,” Billy says, and doubles his arms around her shoulders to hold her tight. And he’s not being creepy about it, he’s not trying to cop a feel. This is new, wholly new, and Nancy doesn’t know if this is what he meant for but she’s distracted, and she can breathe.

“I could flip you,” she says, to make sure her authority remains clear. “I took a self defense class.” 

“Please don’t,” he says, in the exasperatedly amused tone she’s gotten used to this summer.

“I could, though. Is all I’m saying.” 

“Can you chill out for a second?” Billy says, and Nancy’s very aware of how close he is to her ear. “Don’t flip me.” But he lets go, too, so maybe the threat worked. 

“If you’re trying to make me feel better,” Nancy begins. 

“Cool it,” he says. “Just stop thinking for a second.” 

“I can’t,” she shakes her head. “But thank you.” 

Billy gives her a look equally annoyed and disgusted. “Don’t.” 

“I’m dealing with my own issues, here, maybe don’t add yours,” Nancy says. She can feel panic welling in her chest again, under the thin veneer of pleasant banter. 

Billy crosses his arms. “Are you hungry? You want to go get something to eat?” he says in a tone approaching hostile. 

“Yeah,” Nancy answers after a moment. 

“Then lets go inside.” 

Nancy’s halfway through the sliding glass door by the time she realizes Billy’s game. She was just accidentally on purpose helped, and she didn’t see it coming. And it helps. 

“Anything crazy today?” Nancy asks Steve. He’s in the kitchen, making a plate. They join him, Billy getting plates for Nancy and him out of the cabinet and passing one to her. 

“No, not really. The kids behaved themselves. And they’re easier to handle than the shithead squad.” 

“No interdimensional trouble,” Steve agrees. “Right. Pool was good?” 

“Pool was great.” 

“Billy?” Steve says after a second. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Billy shrugs. Nancy looks at him and Billy gives her a death glare. “I’m good,” he insists, looking at Nancy, and Nancy shrugs back at him. 

Jonathan comes in while they’re eating. “Hey guys,” he says. 

“Hi babe,” Steve says. Jonathan comes over and hugs Nancy, then hugs Steve too. 

“None for me?” Billy asks.

“Not today,” Jonathan says with a near smile. “What are we doing tonight?” 

“Swimming, apparently,” Nancy says. 

Jonathan looks between all of them. “Really? Everyone good with that?” 

“Yeah,” Steve answers, and Nancy doesn’t correct him. If she’s going to get in this pool, it’ll be with these three boys, and just them. 

Billy gets shirtless again, jumps straight in with his cut offs on. Jonathan and Steve get swim trunks on. Nancy brought a bathing suit, but she starts small. Keeps her shorts on and sits on the edge of the pool, watches them fuck around and swim. She doesn’t look at the diving board. She doesn’t think about the other side. 

“Nance,” Jonathan says, swimming up to her. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine.” 

“You wanna get in?” 

“No, I’m fine here.” 

“Pull her in,” Billy says, coming over. 

“Don’t you dare, shithead,” Steve answers immediately, and he comes over too. 

Billy looks up at her. All three of them are looking, actually. He holds his hand out to her, and after a second, she takes it. She lets him pull her in, and all three of them are there for her. 

“You’re not dead,” Steve says. 

“Not yet,” Nancy says, heart in her throat. But she’s here, and she’s alive. The sky is dark, the pool lighting all of them from below, making them a luminous pale blue. They’re all alive. “God, guys,” she says. 

“High-stakes swimming,” Steve says. 

Inside, the phone rings. “I’ll get it,” Nance says, probably too quickly. She pulls herself out of the pool and runs inside on tip toes to get to the phone in time. “Hello?” 

“Arcade, arcade,” a voice says. It’s El. She sounds strange. 

“What?” Nancy says. “Didn’t catch that.” 

“Come to the arcade,” El says louder, sounding impatient. “Hurry.” And the line goes dead. 

“Nancy, who was it?” Jonathan asks. He’s standing in the doorway, still outside so he doesn’t drip on the carpeting. 

“Eleven. She says she needs us at the arcade.” Nancy hesitates. “I didn’t hear any of the other kids with her.” Usually they’re all talking over each other. 

“And the arcade’s closed,” Billy says from behind Jonathan. 

Nancy looks at Jonathan and Steve, her stomach sinking fast. Steve looks grim. He picks up the bat, pushes the other two inside, follows and shuts the door behind them. “Better hurry,” he says. “I’ll drive.” 

Nancy claims shotgun, her nerves all on edge. The tension now feels compounded by everything else that happened today, and she’s itching for the action. So she’s grateful Steve drives fast, even scarily fast. 

Steve looks over at her, then, once or twice, and after the third time Nancy can’t hold it in. “Why are you giving me that look?” 

“It’s nothing,” Steve claims. 

“Bullshit.” 

“Okay. Then… why do you seem so happy about this?”

Nancy gives him a hard look. “About what?” 

“This. The weird emergency phone call and rushing off into some kind of trouble. You look like this is what you were hoping for, or something.” 

The car is absolutely silent inside while Nancy struggles to respond. “Obviously, I don’t want any of the kids to be in danger,” she begins. 

“No, but any opportunity for you to be has you rushing right in,” Steve finishes for her. His tone is condescending, like he wasn’t the one to bring his favorite weapon, like he’s not the one driving them fast towards this possible danger, and Nancy’s briefly so mad she can’t speak. 

“You get to leave,” she finally manages, carefully controlling her tone so she doesn’t yell - or worse, cry. “In two months, you get to leave this place where nothing happens, and-“ 

“I’d take nothing over a demogorgon.” 

“Yeah, well I wouldn’t.” 

She regrets saying it almost immediately. Not because it isn’t true, but because she’s the only one sick enough to enjoy it. So she tries to explain. “I can’t do nothing. I never could. And now that I know what it’s like, to…” 

“To almost die?” Steve says dryly. 

Nancy is hyperaware of how little the other two boys are speaking, and doesn’t want to think about why. “No,” she says. “To make a difference. To be treated like an adult, not some stupid high school student who's biggest concern is like, grades.” 

“But you care about your grades.” 

“Yeah but.” She crosses her arms. “Because they’re my way out of here. Not because they’re important.” 

“I’d like _that_ in writing,” Steve snorts. 

“This isn’t a joke,” she says, feeling tears coming. “I have to be here another year.” 

“We’re all going to be here.” 

“You have a choice. I don’t.” 

“Neither do Billy or Jonathan.” 

“Well you can make this about them when you accuse them of wanting people to get hurt, Steve,” Nancy snaps. “It’s not a crime to like being useful. And I like it. So sue me. I like it, and I’m good at it, and I’m a girl, okay? It’s not the end of the world.” 

That silences him. They’re only a couple blocks away when he finally answers her. “Nothing to do with you being a girl,” he says. “And I’m not going anywhere.” 

“That’s dumb,” Nancy declares. 

“Yeah, well, it’s my choice,” he mutters. 

They pull into the arcade parking lot and Nancy’s the first out, walking out towards the street looking. The sign’s dark, no windows lit, and no one’s in sight. “Eleven?” Steve says loudly. He’s holding the bat. Billy’s got another, not studded with nails yet. 

“She’s coming,” Eleven says, floating down from above them. Like literally, floating down from the fucking sky, wobbling and slow but goddamn flying. And landing in the middle of the street. They all move to cluster around her. 

“Superman, huh,” Billy says under his breath. 

“Who’s coming?” Jonathan asks, and holds out his hand to help her land. 

“My sister,” El answers. “She’s almost here.” 

“Your sister,” Steve repeats. “Is she hostile?” 

“I don’t know.” El looks around at all of them, and to Nancy it seems like she’s taking stock of their emotional states. “She helped me before, but I ran away from her.” 

“Where are the other kids?” Jonathan asks. 

“All at Will’s. Safe,” El nods. 

“Hold on,” Billy says, and everyone looks at him. “Your sister. The one youtalked about before? Kali?” 

“Yes,” Eleven nods. 

“She got a number?” 

“Yes.” 

“She got powers?” 

“Yes.” 

“Great,” Billy says with something like his old venom, and flips the bat in his hands. “Just great. Same as yours?” 

“No,” El says. “She can make you see things that aren’t there.” 

Everyone blanches. Nancy feels a spike of adrenaline. “When is she coming?” she asks. 

“Now,” El says, and look out down the road, away from town. 

“Y’know, just cuz you’re a kid with creepy mind powers doesn’t mean you have to pull the whole mysterious statement bull,” Steve says, his hand on her shoulder. “Try being a little more normal.” 

“She’s driving towards us,” El says crossly. “What was I supposed to say?” 

“That, maybe,” Billy says, and takes up a spot on her other side.

Nancy stands by him. Jonathan stays safely behind, closer to the car, and they wait. 

“You’re testing my patience,” El says deliberately. 

Billy snorts. “Oh yeah? Is this my lucky day? You gonna take me out?” 

“Not today,” El answers, but with none of her usual heart. She sounds faint, and in the following silence they hear an approaching car. “She doesn’t look happy,” she says. 

“Not happy as in mad?” 

“I don’t know.” 

The car comes around the bend, and Nance sees it’s a big van. It’s speeding into town, sixty seconds out. 

“You think we should maybe get out of the way?” Jonathan says after a moment.

“She’ll stop,” El says.

“Are you sure?” Steve asks. 

“Yeah.” 

The van is definitely not stopping. It’s only a couple blocks out. 

“El,” Steve says. 

“She’ll stop,” Eleven says, with more surety than a thirteen year old should have. And since she’s not moving, none of them do either.

“Eleven!” Billy shouts, when the van is less than a block away and not slowing down. And she puts her hand out, teeth bared. 

The van slams to a stop, skids closer and comes to a full stop a few yards away. The headlights from Steve’s car throw glare on its windshield, and its headlights are blinding. Then they’re turned off, and the driver’s door opens. Nancy sees boots first, and a slight figure steps into the light. 

She’s dark-skinned, with long black hair that glints like an oil slick in the lights. Short, maybe shorter than Nancy, but her thick boots give her a solid extra inch. Nancy’s never seen anyone like her, as beautiful and angry and strong. 

“Sister,” El says. Sounds strangely formal. “Why are you here?” 

“I need your help,” the girl says, walking closer. “Who’s this?” 

“Family,” El answers. Nancy’s heart swells. 

“Oh. Care to introduce me?” 

The other girl comes to a stop a few feet away, directly in front of Eleven, and as El introduces them she looks at them in turn, nods decisively. First Steve, then Jonathan, then Billy, who seems to be struck speechless. And then Nancy, who finds herself in much the same way. 

Nancy doesn’t know what to do. She ends up sticking her hand out, like this is one of her mother’s friends. “Nancy Wheeler, nice to meet you,” she says by rote. 

And the girl takes her hand, shakes it firmly while Nancy just kind of watches. “I’m Kali,” she says. “And I’m hunting a very bad man. Are you interested in joining me?” Her eyes glint, and Nancy knows the feeling she gets. Danger. 

Nancy shrugs nonchalantly. “When do we leave?”


End file.
